Nkaissery’s death made fodder for rumour mills
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery addresses senior police officers during a conference at Safari Park Hotel at the conference on security on December 15, 2016. There was a fake story saying that his doctor, Mageria, had gone missing. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The doctor’s wife was reported to have said that her husband began fearing for his life.
Last Saturday, the nation woke up to the news that the tough-talking Interior Cabinet Secretary had died at his home in Karen.
Some took advantage of this to start and spread a rumour on WhatsApp to fuel the conspiracy theories online on what killed the general.
1. That Joseph Nkaissery’s doctor James Mageria has gone missing
This one took the form of a message circulated via WhatsApp.
Its thrust was that Dr Mageria, chairman of the board of Karen Hospital had gone missing.
Written like a typical news story, it purported that the doctor had been missing since Sunday evening, hours after recording a statement with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations on the death of the CS.
INTERVIEW
The doctor’s wife was reported to have said that her husband began fearing for his life after speaking about the death of Major-General (Rtd) Nkaissery.
Direct quotes made it look like there had been interviews with the wife and police who confirmed the disappearance.
The correct position is that it was a fake news post made up by the conspiracy theorists who had a field day in the days following Mr Nkaissery’s death.
A simple test for this kind of fake news would be a search online and on the websites of the leading media houses and digital news websites.
2. That the Nasa principals’ agreement with one of their financiers has been leaked
This one has been circulated on WhatsApp and makes for interesting reading.
It purports to list the money that each Nasa principal is to get as “pocket money” and as monthly campaign financing.
It comes up with how mega-projects will be shared out after Nasa wins the General Election next month, with the financier set to get contracts worth more than Sh2.3 trillion.
APPROVED
Among these would be: the Nairobi Mass Transit System at Sh200 billion, a 100 MW power plant for Sh500 billion, printing of new generation currency at Sh500 billion, security installations at Sh500 billion and a 1,034-km road linking Moyale to Garissa via Mandera and Wajir.
To give it that sheen of credence, it had been initialled on each page and the last one was complete with stamps by an advocate.
The correct position is that you, and even we in the press, are unlikely to see such a document at this point of the campaigns.
INFOR
The document had been created on InDesign and then stripped of all metadata, marking its creator’s intention to mask their identity.
Nasa technical team boss David Ndii pointed out on Twitter that the document had been dated April 27 but signed on March 1.
