Former NTV presenter Kobi Kihara apologized on Friday after keen Kenyans exposed her for posting photos taken from other pages and passing them off as her own.
Using Google's Reverse Image Search, social media users identified several images of food, shoes and even a baby shared on Kihara's Instagram page which were clearly downloaded from other sources.
The revelations inspired the #KobiKiharaChallenge, a hilarious trend with hundreds of memes on trying to pass off a fake lifestyle.
Amidst the storm, Kihara finally spoke up, apologizing for misleading people.
"I’m sorry to everyone who I mislead, forgive me. I should have thought twice, I guess it got away from me. To my friends, thanks for the lovely messages, I’m ok..really. To the bullies it’s ok!
"I can handle being an online punching bag, go for it," she wrote.
Kobi further attached a screenshot of a post on her Instagram page from October 2017 in which she stated that her page would be used to curate images.
She wrote that she saw her page as her "online gallery" and advised visitors to it not to be fooled, asking them to stay authentic.
Yet again, keen observers noticed that the caption from October last year had been edited on Friday afternoon shortly before Kobi posted the apology and screenshot.
The apology received mixed reactions with some further questioning her posts while others urged her to dust herself off and move on.
"You could have credited the mom for the picture of her kid dammit!!! You should have never thought doing this in the first place. Content creators curate ideas and concepts, they do not steal content. This is nothing close to an apology!!" wrote Timothy Mathai.
"I still love you @KobiKihara . You've asked for forgiveness and I have done that and my family.Yes forgive you. Accept our forgiveness by retweeting," noted one Pastor Kibet.
"No one is bullying you. You are being called out for impersonation. Take the correction and stop playing the victim. We actually all lie, we are not perfect either," stated Dree Audrey.
