Maina Kageni ain’t vying for woman rep. Why he duped his fans

When radio wonder-guy Maina Kageni released a video in which he announced he would be vying for Nairobi Woman Rep seat, it became an instant hit on social media.

Turns out, however, it was all a hoax! In his characteristic high pitch voice, the Classic 105 FM presenter sounded so convincing, producing ‘relevant’ certificates, that many people actually believed it. Many blogs and websites picked the story, which went viral.

Related: Video: I’m going for woman rep, says Maina

Yet Maina was doing what he does best: marketing. In this video, he was marketing PichaClear Films and Studios, a local film and photography studio. As his fans discussed the unexpected “move” he must have been relaxing somewhere enjoying his pay for the ad and laughing at the comments on social media.

Actually, the giveaway was in his last statement thanking PichaClear for producing the video in record time and on social media he added the following liner to the clip:

“I have worked with various production guys but I have not worked with a more professional, creative, skilled team like PichaClear. They always deliver on time, high quality films and pictures and that’s why I trust Pichaclear.”

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Pichaclear specializes in corporate films and photography, documentaries, TVC’s, music videos, infomercials, corporate and social event coverage and short films, according to information on its website. On Instagram Maina said: “@pichaclearfilms, thank you so much for coming through and recording this announcement on short notice.” The catch here was to portray PichaClear as swift and short-notice service provider.

Whether it achieved its goals through Mainas teaser is not clear, but the video posted on its Facebook page attracted over 200,000 views, not a mean task in an online jungle where lots of content are beckoning for attention.

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Maina Kageni has, in fact, been a client of PichClear, who have covered the ‘Maina Kageni Roadtrips” as he promoted local tourism in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism.

We also checked the IEBC list of independent candidates vying for the woman representative seat in all the 47 counties, and Maina’s name was nowhere. Nairobi has only two candidates contesting for the seat as independents, namely Rosemary Wairimu Macharia and Cecilia Nthenya Mutunga, who are taking on Racheal Shebesh and Esther Passaris.

[crp]