Kenya: Beware of Facebook Page Impersonating Kenyan Politician David Murathe

20 April 2023
Africa Check (Johannesburg)
By Dancan Bwire

IN SHORT: A page in the name of the former Jubilee Party vice-chairperson has been posting wild insults on Facebook, of anyone from the Kenyan deputy president to international athletes. But it's merely impersonating David Murathe and should be ignored.

The Facebook page Hon.David Murathe EGH would have you believe it is run by Kenyan politician David Murathe.

Murathe served as the vice-chairperson of the Jubilee Party before being suspended in February 2023. Jubilee was Kenya's ruling party between 2013 and 2022.

The page uses Murathe's name and photos and posts demeaning and abusive remarks about famous Kenyans.

On 16 April 2023, the page posted a photo of Kenyan deputy president Rigathi Gachagua and other politicians from Nyeri county and captioned it: "Kwani hizi mtu za nyeri zote ziko na midomo kama ya punda!"

This translates from Kiswahili as: "So all these people from Nyeri county have donkey mouths!"

Another post, dated 17 April, reads: "Kipchoge will not win, uzee ni ugonjwa." This mix of English and Kiswahili translates as: "Kipchoge will not win, old age is a disease."

Eliud Kipchoge is a 38-year-old Kenyan athlete who became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours on 12 October 2019. The post was published just an hour before he participated in the Boston marathon in the US.

A different post insults the Kalenjin community in the Rift Valley region of western Kenya as "having no asses".

But is the page run by the politician? We checked.

Fake Facebook page

The Facebook "page transparency" section of this page shows it was created on 25 March 2022 but under the name "Alerts 2022". At the time, it described itself as a "verified news centre".

On 1 October the same year, it changed to its current name "Hon.David Murathe EGH". This is a clear sign that the page is fake.

Another sign that the page is unlikely to be genuine is how consistently it posts insults. This would be uncharacteristic of the social media account of a public figure.

On 30 March 2023 the Jubilee Party posted a screenshot of the Facebook account and stamped it "fake". It said Murathe does not have a social media account.

This is a fake page and its posts should be ignored.

Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org

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