Fake Machogu’s Twitter Account Misleading The Public
The Ministry of Education has recently come forward to disown a Twitter account that has been posing as the Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu.
The account has been making false and misleading statements in the name of the CS, causing confusion and misinformation among the public.
One of the tweets claimed that the CS was congratulating Nyambaria High School for performing well and “topping in KCSE nationally”.
Fake Machogu’s Twitter Account Misleading The Public
To verify the authenticity of the account, Citizen Digital reached out to Kennedy Buhere, a communications officer at the Ministry, who confirmed that the account @EzekielMachogu was indeed a parody account and not the official account of the CS.
The official Twitter account of the CS, which is managed by the Ministry, is @machoguezekiel and was created in November 2017.
The official account has 3,360 followers and follows 114 accounts, whereas the fake account was created in August 2022 and has only 399 followers and follows 1,582 accounts.
When browsing through the official Twitter page of the CS, there was no mention of the tweet congratulating Nyambaria High School.
In fact, a number of posts on the fake account contain false information, and some of the retweets are questionable given the nature of the content they are endorsing.
Real Twitter account that has been posing as the Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu.
For example, the pinned tweet on the fake account reads, “As I will be releasing the KCSE results, continue following the CS Education on Twitter @EzekielMachogu for more updates now”.
This statement is highly unlikely for a CS to make as it is not in line with their official tone and manner of communication.
It is crucial for the public to be aware of such false accounts and to verify the authenticity of the sources before accepting and spreading information.
The fact check was published by Citizen Digital with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance. By doing so, they aim to promote accurate information and to prevent the spread of false information through social media.
The Ministry of Education and the CS urge the public to only rely on the official Twitter account of the CS, @machoguezekiel, for accurate and up-to-date information.