IN SHORT: The name of Kenya’s first lady, Rachel Ruto, is no doubt among the most misused by scammers on social media platforms. Here are another three fake Facebook pages running bogus promotions in her name.
The Facebook pages Rachael Chebet Rutho KE, Hon Rachel Chebet Loans and Hon Rachael Chebet Loans are running promotions and offering loans to Kenyans.
The pages use the name and photos of Kenya's first lady Rachel Ruto, wife of president William Ruto, to run the offers.
One of the page’s posts, dated 14 October 2023, reads: “Chagua kitu Moja unataka kwa sahii PESA, FEES, BIASHARA Kisha uangalie inbox yako. Get loan from 10k up to 300k. Call 0746756106 or Whatsapp 0762575396.”
The mix of English and Kiswahili translates to: “Choose one thing that you want now between money, school fees and business then check your inbox. Get a loan from KSh10,000 up to KSh300,000. Call 0746756106 or Whatsapp 0762575396.”
This is just one of many suspicious promotions and loan offers run by the pages and flagged by Facebook as potentially false.
They have been posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
But are the pages and their offers to be trusted? We checked.
Signs of fake pages and offers
Africa Check noted that the posts on the pages are poorly written. They feature randomly capitalised letters, odd punctuation, a casual mix of English and Kiswahili, and repetitions. This is the first sign that the offers are a scam and are not from legitimate pages. One would expect the first lady’s posts to be well-written without obvious grammatical errors.
It is also odd that Ruto would opt to give loans to strangers on Facebook groups using unverified and unpopular Facebook pages. Usually, the first lady’s programmes would be run professionally, in close coordination with relevant government ministries, not in her personal capacity.
We also noted that the pages list phone numbers through which users can ask for the loans or claim their prizes. This is another sign of a scam.
The first lady’s official Facebook page, Mama Rachel Ruto, is verified and has over one million followers. We found no such offers on her page.
Africa Check has exposed similar pages using Ruto’s name here and here.
The Facebook pages in question are fake and their offers are a scam.
To protect yourself, read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
Republish our content for free
For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false
A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?
Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.
Publishers guideAfrica Check teams up with Facebook
Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.
The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.
You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.
Add new comment