By Michael Barnabe

The police service has distanced Dr Onyango from the account.

This Facebook account impersonating National Police Service (NPS) spokesperson Dr Resila Atieno Onyango and issuing statements in her name is an imposter.

The account uses NPS spokesperson’s name and her photo on its profile.

The account has 326 friends with a bio reading “Kenya national police spokesperson at Government of Kenya Spokesperson.”

But is the account legitimate?

We checked NPS’ official Twitter account and Facebook page, where it shares all information about the service and its leadership, but there was no such account.

Instead, we found a post on its verified Twitter account flagging the account we are investigating as fake.

“We wish to caution the public against interacting with the multiple accounts purporting to belong to the National Police Service Spokesperson and Director Corporate Communications at the NPS, Dr. Resila Onyango, PhD.”

“These existing fake accounts are maintained by unscrupulous imposters with criminal intent. We urge the public to desist interacting with the imposters, as we liaise with other agencies for appropriate action on the pages and their handlers,” NPS said.

NPS also confirmed that the spokesperson does not operate any social media accounts, adding that her office only uses the official pages for the police service.

Dr Onyango was appointed police spokesperson on November 8, 2022 taking over from Bruno Shioso who was moved to police training college in Kiganjo.

She is a distinguished officer and holds the record of being the first female police officer to attain a Doctorate degree in NPS.

This fact check was published by Mtaani Radio with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.