This Facebook account issuing statements as Japhet Koome, the Inspector General of Kenya’s National Police Service, is FAKE.

The account ‘Japheth Koome’ uses a photo of the IG and has been active since November 2022. The account has created posts such as this one, purporting to address the upcoming Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) recruitment exercise.

A search on Facebook showed that several accounts use the name Japheth Koome, but none is verified.

A similar search on Twitter shows this account using Koome’s name, but it is also not verified.

PesaCheck reviewed the NPS’ official Facebook page and Twitter account for information on the page we are looking into, but there was none.

On 3 August 2023, the NPS released a statement disowning the page we are debunking.

According to the agency, Koome does not operate any social media accounts.

“This account is maintained by unscrupulous imposters with criminal intent to defraud unsuspecting Kenyans and the general public. Please note that the Inspector General of Police does not operate any social media accounts,” the NPS said.

PesaCheck looked into a Facebook account issuing statements as Inspector General of Kenya’s National Police Service Japhet Koome 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 Rodgers Omondi 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 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, visit pesacheck.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.