IN SHORT: Dorcas Rigathi, the wife of deputy president Rigathi Gachagua, is an active church pastor. But her ministry does not extend to offering loans on Facebook, as a page using her name would have you believe.
A Facebook account is offering “business loans” in the name of Dorcas Rigathi, the wife of Kenya’s deputy president Rigathi Gachagua.
The page, “Bishop Dorcas Gachagua”, has attracted 27,000 followers. The profile photo shows Rigathi with Rachel Ruto, the country’s first lady.
The cover photo is of Rigathi with her husband. She is also a pastor and often speaks about her work with the church.
A typical post is headed: “*SCHOOL FEES BUSINESS AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT SOFT LOANS*”.
It reads: “Hello, hope this finds you well. Do you know that you can benefit from inua jamii loan project that has zero interest rate. It is very easy, remember the loan is unsecured, No paperwork, no long procedures, no bureaucracy and long waiting periods.The loan is from Ksh10,000 to Ksh900,000. The loan is processed within 20 minutes.”
It then asks users to reply with their contact details and the amount sought, before signing off with “be blessed”.
But the loan offers come with a “security fee”.
Similar offers on the page have been taken down. To make the page seem legit, most of its other posts are about Rigathi’s official and religious engagements.
The spouses of Kenya’s president and deputy are often involved in community initiatives.
But so far none of these have involved running a loan business.
Africa Check has previously debunked scams using Rigathi’s name. This is another one.
‘Do not entertain other accounts’
The “Bishop Dorcas Gachagua” page was created on 5 September 2022.
The legitimate page is “Pastor Dorcas Rigathi”. It was created on 28 February and has 68,000 followers. But it is still unverified.
The “Pastor Dorcas Rigathi” page has posted a warning about the Facebook imposter, which includes screenshots of the “Bishop Dorcas Gachagua” page.
The warning reads: “ATTENTION TO EVERYONE : First, I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to all of you who support and show their utmost appreciation to me and to everything that I do. But let us please become more aware of FAKE PAGE.”
It adds: “This is MY ONLY PAGE PLEASE DO NOT ENTERTAIN ANY OTHER ACCOUNTS UNDER MY NAME, OR ANY OTHER PAGE USING MY PICTURES WITH DIFFERENT NAMES.
“This is just to raise awareness since my posers have been posting my pictures with malicious captions.”
The imposter page is a scam, which uses its “security fee” to make money from unsuspecting Facebook users.
Find out more about Facebook scams in our guide.
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