Facebook page claiming to be that of former President Uhuru Kenyatta is fake

The page, Hon. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, has 79,476  followers with at least 65,315 page likes.

Posts on the page are not only sensational but evoke a sense of unsubstantiated claims. One of the posts reads:

“The constitution of Kenya doesn't bar a former president from vying for presidency after a five year break!”

The fake page commands an active following, with most of its posts garnering more than 5,000 likes on average, and thousands of comments.

According to its transparency information section, the page was created on 2 August, 2022.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s official Twitter and Facebook accounts were in March 2019 deleted in what State House claimed was a result of an ‘unauthorized access.’

The deactivation of the accounts raised eyebrows as it happened an hour after a message stating that no one will be spared in the war against corruption.

Kanze Dena, who was serving as State House spokesperson in the President Uhuru administration said: "President Uhuru Kenyatta's Social Media accounts are his personal accounts. He has the right to activate or deactivate them as he wills. He has his reasons, and we respect that." 

Nzioka Waita, who was the Chief of Staff at the time, said the accounts were temporarily suspended.

“On account of unauthorized access to the official social media handles of H.E the President of the Republic of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta. All official social media handles for the President have been temporarily suspended to allow for the necessary remedial measures to be undertaken,” he said.

In November 2020,  the former president revealed he quit social media due the barrage of insulting and distasteful comments he would receive as part of feedback from online users.

President Uhuru described Twitter as a platform full of insults that would only mess up his peace of mind. 

This fact check was published by Citizen Digital with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance.