A fake communique purporting to impose a travel ban against Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen and Kapseret Member of Parliament Oscar Sudi was on Monday, December 1, flagged as fake.
The fake letter shared widely online on social media impersonated the United States Embassy in issuing travel bans to the two.
In the fake statement dated December 1, Murkomen and Sudi were restricted from travelling to the United States indefinitely until further advisory was issued.
"The U.S. Government. US. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in coordination with The US Embassy in Kenya herewith restricts the induviduals named Oscar Kipchumba Sudi and Onsemus Kipchumba Markomen from entering The United States of America," read part of the fake communique with spelling mistakes.
The fake communique bore the government seal of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) with a false signature of the director Mendoza Jaddou.
Kenyans.co.ke spoke with the US Embassy who confirmed that no such communique originated from them and warned the authors of the letter.
“These letters are fake. Creating or distributing false government documents is illegal in both Kenya and the United States,” U.S. Embassy spokesman James Hagengruber stated.
A close look at the fake document revealed typos, inconsistent fonts and formatting that raised red flags over its credibility.
It was alleged in the fake statement that the two aforementioned government officials were restricted from travelling to the US after receiving bribes and facilitating tenders to the Adani Group Limited.
The fake document further stated that the cessation of movement of the two named government officials to the US was to be effective as of December 1, 2024, at the stroke of midnight.
“The current indefinite entry restrictions into the US denote that there will be a suspension of visa exemption policy and issuance of tourist visa ande-visa” the fake letter full of grammatical errors further stated.
However, the US embassy maintained that they had not issued any information to the said government officials. “The travel ban indicated in the letter is a fake and was not issued by any US government official,” the US Embassy added.
The fake letter comes in the wake of fake news that has increased in recent weeks. The latest one was a fake job alert purporting to recruit en masse for vacancies for the Social Health Authority (SHA) shared on November 24.
Through its official X handle, SHA dismissed the poster as fake effectively warning members of the public to beware of the misleading information.
