By Kamadi Amata
This Facebook page using the name and photo of former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko Mbuvi Kioko is a HOAX.
The page dubbed Mbuvi Kioko claims to offer motorbikes, school fees, business capital and other goodies.
The account has over 4,000 friends and has not made any public posts on its profile. Instead it has joined several groups where it shares posts.
One of the posts on the page claimed that several people had received the goodies, thus prompting unsuspecting users to troop to the comment section to indicate the type of assistance they needed.
Although the page uses the name and branding of the former governor, it is not legitimate as Sonko’s authentic page is verified.
Secondly, Sonko uses a Facebook page, while the one we are debunking is a normal account.
The former governor’s legitimate page has over 2.5 million followers, with its transparency information section indicating that it was created in September 2010.
Mtaani Radio checked Sonko’s verified Facebook page for any such campaign, but there was none.
On November 10, 2022, Sonko published a post flagging the page as fake and warning Kenyans against falling prey to it.
“Wale munapenda pesa ya bure mujue hata hii hapa ni utapeli. Musitumie mtu pesa, Sonko posted.
On 6 February 2023, Sonko again flagged the page on his verified Twitter account and asked Kenyans to only interact with him on his verified pages.
“Watu wangu. Kindly note that there are Facebook accounts zinaitwa Mike kioko na nyengine Mike Sonko, na Mike Mbuvi na pia Mike Mbuvi Sonko which are being used to swindle unsuspecting members of the public ati naepeana school fees loan between 70k to 150k & also free motorbikes.
“The account is operated by conmen wanaibia wakenya pesa huu wakati mgumu wakiuchumi. Do not send any mpesa to anyone or any number ati loan registration fees, pesa ya motobike logbook and transfer. My only Facebook account is verified and has a following of over 2.5m people.
This fact check was published by Mtaani Radio with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-CheckingAlliance
