Wafula Chebukati fake Facebook page gains traction

By  JOHN NGIRACHU

A prankster has created a social media page bearing the name and photograph of the new chairman of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, Wafula Chebukati.

A spokesman for the commission alerted the Nation about the existence of the fake account on Facebook at the weekend.

Perhaps to draw Facebook users to the account, some of the posts on it would appear genuine to the untrained eye.

Also Read

The profile picture of the page appears to have been taken from images captured during his vetting by the National Assembly.

ALLEGATIONS

The red in the background is County Hall, where the vetting happened.

One post says: “The allegations raised by the opposition including the use of  The former Presidents Moi & Kibaki's ID number to register other people is true.

"We have noticed a trend of such malicious registrations, especially in Central Province and some parts of Rift Valley. We are working tirelessly to clean the register of such unlawful trends.

"I give you my word Kenya, this time there will be no rigging, those who depended on rigged elections better start packing. I would like to thank the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga of bringing these issues to light. God bless Kenya –WC SHARE THIS MESSAGE WIDELY.”

The message had 375 shares, pointing to the potential the page has in misleading the public in the run-up to the August polls.

MOI, KIBAKI IDS

This was in reference to the Nation story last Thursday on the case where the identity card numbers of retired presidents Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki were revealed to be part of the 128,926 numbers that are shared.

Mr Chebukati’s real page on Facebook bears a passport-size photograph of him and the name Wafula Chebukati.

His LinkedIn profile is also similar.

Here are the links to the correct social media pages:

Twitter: @wchebukati

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/wchebukati

Linkedin: https://ke.linkedin.com/in/wchebukati

In the headlines