HOAX: Facebook account giving away Inua Jamii soft loans does not belong to Rachel Ruto
This Facebook account claiming to belong to Kenya’s First Lady Rachel Ruto and issuing Inua Jamii soft loans ranging from KSh20,000 to KSh150,000 is a HOAX.
The Facebook account, “HN Rachael Chebet Ruttos”, urges people to either comment with the word “loan” or send the word to a specific WhatsApp number.
“GOOD MORNING. Kama uko online Sasa hivi na hukupokea loan yangu Jana kwanzia ksh20,000 to ksh150,000 kutoka INUA JAMII SOFT LOAN na ungetaka kujisaidia comment #LOAN OR WHATSAPP the LOAN to #0794120035,” one of the Facebook posts reads.
This is loosely translated as; “GOOD MORNING. If you are online right now and did not receive my loan yesterday starting from ksh20,000 to ksh150,000 from INUA JAMII SOFT LOAN and you would like to help yourself comment #LOAN OR WHATSAPP the LOAN to #0794120035.”
Also attached to the account is an image of the First Lady.
However, this is not Rachel Ruto’s official Facebook account, as her authentic Facebook page is verified and goes by a different username — “Mama Rachel Ruto”.
The legitimate Rachel Ruto Facebook page has more than 930,000 followers and over 545,000 likes, while the imposter Facebook account has around 250 friends. The authentic Rachel Ruto page was also created on 7 June 2013, while the imposter account shared its first post on 1 September 2022.
The First Lady has not shared any information about loans on her verified Facebook page.
In May 2021, Inua Jamii alerted the public that it does not offer loans. The organisation flagged several Facebook pages that were promising to give loans, including Facebook pages that were impersonating former First Lady Margaret Kenyatta.
The organisation also reshared a 2020 Facebook post reiterating that it does not offer loans. Inua Jamii elaborated on what it does, which is to “uplift the lives of poor and vulnerable citizens of Kenya through regular and reliable bi-monthly cash transfers”.
Inua Jamii Kenya is a programme under the Ministry of Labour & Social Protection, State Department for Social Protection.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook account claiming to belong to First Lady Rachel Ruto and issuing Inua Jamii soft loans from KSh20,000 to KSh150,000 and finds it to be a HOAX.
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 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.
