West Pokot Governor John Lonyangapuo on Monday, May 11, had to clarify reports following an account on Twitter believed to be his criticised Uhuru over the removal of Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen as the Senate Majority Leader.
The account had on Monday put out statements against the president including an allegation that the Senate majority leader's car had been confiscated after his ejection.
"Former Senate majority leader official government vehicles intercepted at Mombasa Road and recalled back to Parliament grounds. The cars, alongside a security detail, which he was assigned to due to his role as the Majority Leader in the Senate were intercepted by the DCI," read one of the tweets.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, the governor clarified that the impostor account was not associated with his office urging Kenyans to be vigilant.
"An unscrupulous individual has opened a Twitter account impersonating me. Yesterday, it was used to criticise the President, for sanctioning the leadership changes in Senate! It looked weird," he told our newsdesk.
He further added that the impostor had used his name to swindle Kenyans with the promise of giving them jobs.
"Very funny Kenyans indeed! Somebody alerted me that the said account has been asking money, Ksh550, to process some job applications, and purporting to offer jobs.
Adding that, "and some innocent Kenyans have been sending M-Pesa to them."
Lonyangapuo assured that investigations were underway to nab the perpetrators of the scheme.
The impostor account which was created in September 2019, with 197 followers in April issued a statement alleging to be the official account.
The account has some features that reveal it to be a parody such as the misspelling of the name "JohnLunyangapuo" which according to social media expert Stacey Nduta is one of the easiest ways to identify a fake account.
Nduta also advises on checking the number of followers an account of a public figure has when spotting a parody account.
Some clear parody accounts also do indicate in the bio that they were indeed parodying the public figure, but many social media users do not check for these details before attributing messages to the public figures.
