IN SHORT: These Facebook accounts are impersonating James Orengo, the governor of Kenya’s Siaya county, and offering cash loans. But they demand upfront fees, so it's best to avoid them.
The Facebook account GOVERNOR JAMES ORENGO SIAYA COUNTY is offering loans to Kenyans.
It uses the name and photos of Siaya county governor James Orengo.
Siaya county is 420 kilometres from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
One post from the account, dated 16 May 2025, reads: “Kindly validate your details as follows: Name Number County ID NUMBER (INUA JAMII SOFT LOAN).”
The account also claims to offer second-hand “motorbikes on loan” with “Free delivery from my company” and requests personal details to apply.
On 30 November 2024, another account started using the name Governor James Orengo. It also offered loans and used the governor’s photos. It changed its name to Kipchumba Kirwa Oscar on 10 May 2025 and started selling chickens.
One of its loan offers reads: “INUA JAMII SOFT LOAN now available as from: 5,000/= fees 250, 10,000/= fee 600, 20,000/= fee 1,200, 50,000/= fee 2,500, 100,000/= fee 3,200, 250,000/= fee 4,000, 500,000/= fee 6,400, 900,000/= fee 8,100. PAY BACK TIME 18+6 MONTHS 24 MONTHS, how much do you need now? Kindly submit Full name Phone number Id number Amount Or call my office 0768889089.”
The accounts reference Inua Jamii, implying that it is the source of the loans. Inua Jamii is a programme run by the Kenyan government that gives cash grants to poor and vulnerable people. The name is Kiswahili for “uplift the community”.
The loan offers also appear here and here. But are the offers legitimate? We checked.
Scam offers
The accounts claim that the loans are from Inua Jamii. However, the programme does not provide loans and is managed by the social protection department, which is led by a cabinet secretary and not governors.
The phone numbers listed on the Facebook accounts are not featured on the state department’s website. This is the first indication that this is a scam.
Additionally, the posts advertising the offers contain grammatical errors and inconsistent capitalisation. Such errors are unlikely to be present in official communication from a governor.
The posts further ask that applicants pay a “security fee” for each loan amount they apply for. This is the clearest sign of a scam. It's unlikely that governor Orengo would offer loans to random people on social media while demanding an upfront fee. It is also uncharacteristic of a governor to change their account name to something completely different and start selling chickens on Facebook.
Orengo’s official page is James Orengo. It was created on 5 June 2018 and has 233,000 followers. This page does not mention loans, motorbikes on credit or chickens.
The accounts offering loans are run by imposters. Their offers are scams.
To help protect yourself against online fraudsters, see Africa Check’s guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
These fake loan offers also appear here, here, here and here.
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