Ignore Facebook account offering bogus loans in the name of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga

IN SHORT: A Facebook account impersonating Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has been offering loans. But it's a scam.

The Facebook account Sir Raila Odinga jamii promotion and loans is offering loans to Kenyans.

The account uses the name and photos of Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga.

One of the account's posts reads: "School fees and business soft loan. Do you know that you can get a soft loan that is unsecured and easy to pay through my Inuajami project you can get a soft loan that has no interest rate and payble in 24 months (2yrs) with a grace period of 3months , All you need to do is to send in your loan application containing your details ... "

The account claims that users can borrow up to KSh2 million (about US$14,900).

But can the account and its offers be trusted? We checked.

Signs of a fake account

There are several signs that all is not as it seems.

The account's posts are poorly written. They have randomly capitalised letters and odd punctuation. One would expect the social media posts of an opposition leader of Odinga's stature to be well written, with no obvious grammatical errors.

The fact that these offers are being made through an unverified Facebook account only adds to the suspicion. Authentic initiatives would likely use official channels, such as Odinga's verified Facebook page, which has a substantial following of 2 million. We found no such offers on his page.

Africa Check has exposed similar pages and accounts using other politicians' names here and here. To protect yourself, read our guide to Facebook and how to spot them.