A screenshot of a tweet which appears to quote Kenyan politician Moses Wetangula has attracted social media attention in the country.
The tweet reads: “Once Kenya Kwanza is ELECTED, we will ensure that Francis Atwoli VACATE the office he holds as a COTU Boss. Enough is Enough!”
Kenya Kwanza is a political alliance led by deputy president William Ruto, who heads the United Democratic Alliance (UDA). Ruto seeks to succeed president Uhuru Kenyatta in the 9 August 2022 general elections.
Wetangula is leader of the Ford Kenya party, also in the alliance supporting Ruto.
Atwoli is secretary general of the Central Organization of Trade Unions, or Cotu. He has been a vocal supporter of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition, whose presidential candidate is Raila Odinga.
Atwoli has been particularly critical of Ruto and the bottom-up economic model he is promoting.
But did Wetangula tweet this attack on Atwoli? We checked.
Tweet from imposter account
We searched for the tweet and found it posted on a Twitter account with the handle “@MoseWetangula“.
While the profile photo of the account shows Wetangula, we discovered that the account was only created in March 2022 and has just over 7,000 followers. Wetangula is a seasoned politician and it is highly unlikely that he created a Twitter account less than three months before the general elections.
The legit account run by the politician was created in November 2011, has over 750,000 followers, under the handle “@Wetangulam”. While the imposter account is hard hitting, the legit account’s tone is more formal and respectful, as one would also expect of a public figure.
There’s no evidence that the tweet circulating on social media was authored or approved by Wetangula – it is fraudulent, published by an imposter Twitter account.