The National Police Service (NPS) on Friday, November 25, issued a statement warning the public against interacting with the multiple accounts purporting to belong to its spokesperson, Resila Onyango.
According to the statement, the accounts are fake and managed by imposters with criminal intent.
The statement added that Onyango does not operate any social media account and that she only transacts her business using the NPS official channels.
“We urge the public to desist from interacting with the imposters, as we liaise with other agencies for appropriate action on the pages and their handlers," the statement read in part.
"Please note that the Police Spokesperson does not operate any social media account and only transacts her official police duties through the NPS official communications platforms.
Among the blacklisted accounts is one with "Resila Onyango (Doctor)" as its user name and another under "Atieno Resila Onyango".
In a follow-up search of the above-mentioned accounts on Facebook, Kenyans.co.ke established that the account named "Resila Oyango (Doctor)" had a total of 871 friends by the time of publishing this article.
Further, the account used Onyango's portrait in police uniform as the profile picture, stealing her identity to confuse unsuspecting users.
Similarly, the other accounts had Resila Onyango's portraits as their profile pictures, with bios purporting to be the police spokesperson.
The revelation came at a time of increased concerns over misinformation channelled through pseudo-accounts by imposters on various social media platforms.
Worth noting, Dr Onyango was appointed as the Police Spokesperson on November 7, taking over from immediate former spokesperson Bruno Shiosho.
The spokesperson doubles up as the Director of Corporate Communications at the NPS and hence makes pronouncements on various aspects on behalf of the police service.
