Has Kenyan senator Millicent Omanga openly mocked deputy president William Ruto on Twitter?
A screenshot of what seems to be a tweet by the senator has been shared on Facebook. It shows a photo of a large fenced estate next to another of shacks extending to the horizon.
The tweet reads: “This is deputy president William Ruto resident vs a shopping centre in sogui and he calls himself Hustler Nation #HaslaMwitu.”
The suggestion is that Ruto lives in a luxury residence while people in his home village of Sugoi live in poverty.
The hashtag #HaslaMwitu roughly translates as “fake hustler”. Ruto has branded himself as a hustler, allied with the working poor, in his bid for the 2022 presidential election.
Omanga is reportedly a close ally of Ruto. Did she tweet this?
Africa Check searched for the tweet on Google and traced it to a Twitter account that has since been suspended.
The suspended account used the senator’s name, but had a different handle than Omanga’s official Twitter account.
The official handle is @MillicentOmanga, but the fake account’s was @MiliicentOmanga, misspelling “Miliicent” with a single “l” and a double “i”.
Fake or parody social media accounts often misspell words or names so the difference is hard to spot unless you look closely, such as replacing “i” with “l” or “l” with the number “1”.
The tweet does not appear on Omanga’s official Twitter account. – Dancan Bwire
A screenshot of what seems to be a tweet by the senator has been shared on Facebook. It shows a photo of a large fenced estate next to another of shacks extending to the horizon.
The tweet reads: “This is deputy president William Ruto resident vs a shopping centre in sogui and he calls himself Hustler Nation #HaslaMwitu.”
The suggestion is that Ruto lives in a luxury residence while people in his home village of Sugoi live in poverty.
The hashtag #HaslaMwitu roughly translates as “fake hustler”. Ruto has branded himself as a hustler, allied with the working poor, in his bid for the 2022 presidential election.
Omanga is reportedly a close ally of Ruto. Did she tweet this?
Fake account, now suspended
Africa Check searched for the tweet on Google and traced it to a Twitter account that has since been suspended.
The suspended account used the senator’s name, but had a different handle than Omanga’s official Twitter account.
The official handle is @MillicentOmanga, but the fake account’s was @MiliicentOmanga, misspelling “Miliicent” with a single “l” and a double “i”.
Fake or parody social media accounts often misspell words or names so the difference is hard to spot unless you look closely, such as replacing “i” with “l” or “l” with the number “1”.
The tweet does not appear on Omanga’s official Twitter account. – Dancan Bwire
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