By Peris Gachahi
The Office of the Deputy President has denounced the page.
A Facebook page using Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s name to fundraise to help Kenyans affected by drought is a HOAX.
One of the posts appealing for donations reads: “Goodevening (sic) kenyans should we gather something for our fellow kenyans suffering from drought?…Let us come together and do a public harambee for them it will assist them for some time be blessed so much as we support them.”
A different post shares a PayBill and an account number to which Kenyans can send their contributions.
The page “H.E Rigathi Gachagua Deputy President.” has 13,000 followers and likes and uses Gachagua’s images on the profile and cover photos.
The National Drought Management Authority’s (NDMA) November 2022 drought update showed that 4.35 million Kenyans are food-insecure. The government allocated KSh2 billion on 1 November 2022 to cater for food relief.
Gachagua has, however, not started his own fundraiser to assist those affected by the drought.
A look at the page transparency section shows that the profile in question was created on 15 June 2022, and has had 10 name changes since, an indicator that it could be an imposter.
“This is not his,” was the response of Njeri Rugene, head of Communication Services at the Deputy President’s office, when PesaCheck contacted her to authenticate the Facebook page.
Rugene, who responded in writing, also shared the DP’s official page under the name Hon. Rigathi Gachagua, which has 116,000 followers.
The DP’s official page was created on 8 November 2017 and has had no name changes, unlike the page in the claim.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook page using Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s name to fundraise for Kenyans affected by drought and finds it to be a HOAX.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
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