This Facebook account purporting to belong to Kenya’s Education Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Anab Gure and offering funds is FAKE.

The Facebook account, registered under username “Cas Anab Gure Sabwow,” with 189 friends as of 5 July 2023, claims to give funds for different purposes through an alleged Inua Jamii Funds programme.

The funds, ranging from KSh10,000 to KSh300,000, are supposedly available to Kenyans, but those seeking to benefit are required to pay a registration fee.

To access the funds, one must register with a purported government council funds and send the full name, phone number, ID number, and location to a provided WhatsApp number.

Our keyword search on Facebook for the ownership of the Facebook account associated with CAS Gure identified a page under her name, which is verified. However, there was no mention of “Inua jamii funds” on the verified page.

In 2019, Gure, who was then the Garissa Woman Representative, led fundraising efforts for women, youth, and the vulnerable individuals in Wajir under an initiative dubbed “Inua_Mama team.”

The verified page, with the username “Hon Anab Subow Gure,” differs from “Cas Anab Gure Sabwow” — the Facebook account we are debunking. As of 5 July 2023, the verified page had at least 86,000 followers.

According to Facebook’s transparency information, the verified page was created on 11 June 2018, with the username “Hon Anab Subow Gure, Garissa Women REP.” On 21 September 2022, the username was changed to “Hon Anab Subow Gure.”

It is unclear when the Facebook account we are debunking was created as Facebook does not provide transparency information for personal accounts. The first post on the account appears to have been made on 9 June 2023.

While the verified Facebook page features a variety of posts, the account we are fact-checking focuses mainly on promoting the alleged “Inua Jamii Funds”.

We also reviewed Gure’s verified Facebook page and found a post by the CAS denouncing the account we are debunking as fraudulent.

“There are fake accounts present on social media, especially on Facebook, pretending to be me. Please be cautious and vigilant while interacting online. To distinguish the real account from the fake ones, I want to emphasize that my official Facebook page bears blue verification ticks (blue checkmarks). This indicates the authenticity of my account. If you come across any other accounts claiming to be me without those verification ticks, they are not genuine,” the Education CAS warned her followers.

Gure further warned users against engaging and sharing personal information with the imposter accounts.

PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook account claiming to belong to Kenya’s Education Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) Anab Gure and found it to be FAKE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck fact-checker Naomi Wanjiku and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Cédrick Irakoze and acting chief copy editor Francis Mwaniki.

The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck managing editor Doreen Wainainah.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape the government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water/sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visitpesacheck.org.

PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.