The government has responded to growing concerns over allegations that fake boda bodas were issued at President William Ruto’s recent youth empowerment forum at State House in Nairobi.
The event, which was intended to support young entrepreneurs, came under strict scrutiny after some of the participants took to social media to claim that they had not received the motorcycles they were pictured with at the event.
It was alleged that some of the motorcycles distributed during the forum were never delivered to the intended beneficiaries.
One of the beneficiaries spoke to Citizen TV after a video of him asking the government to explain what had happened to the money for the boda bodas went viral. He revealed that, after having their photographs taken, they were told the motorcycles would be delivered to them, but this never happened.
Another group of 50 young people also accused the government of lying to them. They had submitted a proposal for media items and been promised that they would receive them in return for attending the forum. However, they told Citizen TV that they never received them.
According to the youth, the forum, which saw thousands of young people flock to State House to receive the items, was a hoax.
In response to these reports, Dennis Itumbi, the Head of Presidential Special Projects and Creative Economy, denied the allegations and accused the TV station of airing fake news.
‘’Kindly avoid being used as a platform for fake news and misinformation. No items were issued to individuals. The empowerment targeted 1,150 groups, each consisting of 10 people,’’ Itumbi said.
He explained that the motorcycles were issued to groups and not individuals, emphasising that a similar forum is scheduled again for part two.
‘’Only the group chairmen were allowed to collect the items. That was the official process. Deceit and lies - Nairobi Empowerment season two, will follow,’’ Itumbi continued.
The announcement by Itumbi comes barely three days after a fresh lot of youths were issued other boda bodas. According to the youth who spoke to Citizen TV, that was also a tactic to cool down the initial concern that some youths had not received the boda bodas.
Nominated Senator Karen Nyamu, who was also mentioned in the youths' allegations, firmly denied the claims. She clarified that all youths registered under her had received their boda bodas, noting that any omissions were minimal, limited to one or two individuals at most.
Speaking on the same, State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohamed said ''A total of 1,100 registered groups from Nairobi submitted proposals for their empowerment programmes or projects, all approved, all funded, all received. Each group had 10 members with a chairperson who delivered the projects for an orderly process. That’s 11,000 people in total.''
“Yet Citizen TV interviews just 2 individuals, skips questions about the actual process, & uses them as “authorities” to claim “unfulfilled promises,” without even fact-checking with State House,'' he continued.
