A screenshot of what seems to be a tweet by Kenyan agriculture minister Peter Munya, backing Nairobi senator Johnson Sakaja in the political deadlock over a controversial new formula for sharing revenue among county governments, was posted on Facebook on 4 August 2020.
It reads: “My friend sakaja Johnson should you not bow to impunity and conmanship, my view on distribution of resources you well articulated it, stand firm, These kind of #SakajaBetraysNairobi will continue being flagged day in day out, you are a benevolent leader, Kenya says thank you.”
The screenshot shows the Twitter handle @HonMunya and indicates that Sakaja retweeted it.
Did the minister really tweet in support of Sakaja? We checked.
The tweet’s poor grammar and punctuation is a sign that it may be by an imposter account, and not the cabinet secretary.
The Twitter account @HonMunya was created on 19 June 2020 with the name “Hon Peter Gatirau Munya, MBS”. It has just over 500 followers, and sent out the tweet in the screenshot on 3 August.
It is not the minister’s account.
Munya’s official account was created on 30 December 2011 and has 57,500 followers. It is named “CS Hon Peter Munya” and has the handle @PeterMunya. Although it is not verified, other Kenyan ministers have tagged the account in their tweets.
And the minister hasn’t used his account since 7 July, when he retweeted Kenya’s agriculture ministry.
Munya has not tweeted support for Sakaja’s stance on county funding. – Grace Gichuhi
It reads: “My friend sakaja Johnson should you not bow to impunity and conmanship, my view on distribution of resources you well articulated it, stand firm, These kind of #SakajaBetraysNairobi will continue being flagged day in day out, you are a benevolent leader, Kenya says thank you.”
The screenshot shows the Twitter handle @HonMunya and indicates that Sakaja retweeted it.
Did the minister really tweet in support of Sakaja? We checked.
Imposter account created in June
The tweet’s poor grammar and punctuation is a sign that it may be by an imposter account, and not the cabinet secretary.
The Twitter account @HonMunya was created on 19 June 2020 with the name “Hon Peter Gatirau Munya, MBS”. It has just over 500 followers, and sent out the tweet in the screenshot on 3 August.
It is not the minister’s account.
Munya’s official account was created on 30 December 2011 and has 57,500 followers. It is named “CS Hon Peter Munya” and has the handle @PeterMunya. Although it is not verified, other Kenyan ministers have tagged the account in their tweets.
And the minister hasn’t used his account since 7 July, when he retweeted Kenya’s agriculture ministry.
Munya has not tweeted support for Sakaja’s stance on county funding. – Grace Gichuhi
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Further Reading
[email protected]: The challenges of working across Africa
Misinformation knows no borders and Africa Check often responds to similar false claims from country to country.
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