Social media pages that have been posting content in the name of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera, are fake.
These Facebook and Twitter pages bear the name and images of Juliana Cherera. According to the information on the Facebook page, it was created in December 2020 and describes Cherera as a government official.
The page, which has over 36,000 followers, has a cover photo of Cherera making an address, with IEBC banners seen in the background. On the other hand, the Twitter page describes her as “the mathematician”, and has just over 600 followers. It was created in August 2022.
Investigations by Business Today, however, revealed that the pages are run by imposters out to take advantage of her growing popularity after she disowned the final presidential results, announced by her boss, IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
The results announced by Chebukati on 15th August 2022, showed UDA’s William Ruto had won the 2022 presidential elections with 7,176,141 (50.49 per cent) votes against Azimio La Umoja’s Raila Odinga’s 6,942,930 votes (48.85 per cent).
Ms Cherera led three other commissioners – Francis Wanderi, Irene Masit and Justus Nyang’aya – in disowning the poll results, accusing Chebukati of turning the agency into a one-man-show to “subvert the will of Kenyan voters by declaring unverified results.”
We reached out to Ms Cherera who disowned the accounts, clarifying she is not on social media. “I am not on social media,” she said in her response. “All those Facebook/Twitter accounts are fake and I have reported them to the relevant organisations/authorities.”
As we did the fact-check, the Facebook page was momentarily renamed Godwin Goddy Analyst, and the profile and cover photos of Cherara were replaced with images of President-elect William Ruto.
Another giveaway on the Twitter Page is the Twitter handle @SamuelW23574233, which is not related to the name Juliana Cherera as handles are professionally fashioned.
The social media pages impersonating Juliana Cherera have been disowned by the IEBC vice-chairperson, and are therefore FAKE.
This fact-check was produced by BUSINESS TODAY with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, African Fact Checking Alliance network and the United Nations Development Programme.
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