A Facebook account bearing the name and photos of secular artist Sammy Irungu, claiming to issue loans, is fake.
The account, with only 16 friends as of October 11, 2023, has been claiming to issue “Inua Jamii Loans” ranging from Ksh10,000 to Ksh300,000. We could not determine when the account was created since Facebook does not provide transparency information for personal profiles.
The account, which Business Today found to be an imposter after investigations, has been using an image of First Lady Rachael Ruto to woo unsuspecting users.
Sammy Irungu, through his official verified Facebook Page, dismissed the account as fake, warning his fans against being coned by the user of the account.
“Hello my good people it has come to my attention that someone is using the page above pretending to be me. I want to let you all know that page is not mine… don’t let anyone con you using my name. I only use this page that has 411k followers. Please be careful,” Irungu stated in a post dated September 27, 2023.
According to Facebook transparency information, the authentic page was created on 27 January 2017 under the username ‘Sammy Irungu’. As of 15 October, the page had 413 followers.
The account has mostly been posting in a Facebook group dubbed “Shiru wa GP Fun Page”, luring users to contact him/her through the number 0780848812.
The account, unlike Irungu’s official page, does not have contact details and has very scanty information.
The account bearing Sammy Irungu’s name and photos, claiming to offer loans, is, therefore, an imposter.
This fact check was published by Business Today with technical support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck newsdesk, through the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA).
