Kimaiyo’s Facebook account impersonator arrested

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI; KENYA: A man who has been impersonating using a Facebook account as Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo has been arrested in Nairobi.

The man, identified as Jackson Siro, was nabbed at Development House in Nairobi on Thursday evening by police who had been asked to pursue the case.

Siro is a college student at a Nairobi college but has been operating from Development House.

The suspect who is expected to appear before court on Friday had attracted hundreds of followers on the social media who took him to be Kimaiyo.

“He had three accounts that he used to use to impersonate. We think he conned many,” said a senior officer aware of the probe.

It is Kimaiyo who asked police to pursue the case after he was asked by some of his juniors if he was on Facebook.

Police said he had been posting several messages on his account specifically to deal with police matters, which attracted many unsuspecting officers.

Police say such cases in which people pose as others are on the rise but a special team based at CID headquarters is dealing with them.

Another suspect who had posed as former commissioner of police Mathew Iteere was arrested last year and charged with impersonation.

Police have also been pursuing another imposter who had been duping people that he is the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Julius Karangi.

In December, Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) warned the public to beware of fraudulent accounts on social media sites pretending to be operated by Gen Karangi.

KDF information operations officer Col Cyrus Oguna alerted that the only official presence of KDF on any social network forum was on Twitter with the handle @kdfinfo.

“Be advised that all other pages are fictitious and are not in any way affiliated to Chief of Defence Forces or KDF. These include account names ‘General Julius Karangi, the Chief of the Defence Forces and Kenya Defence Forces (KDF),” said Oguna.

Cases of impersonations on social media network have been very common in Kenya with celebrities and politicians becoming easy targets.

Two news anchors became victims when their imposters on Facebook extorted money from their fans. 

He said KDF will not be liable for any misinformation or fraudulent action that may occur from interaction with persons running the above named accounts.

Police note that cases of social media fraud have been on the increase.

Police said that the incident is a pointer to an existing cartel out to defraud  innocent public using the social media.

Most of the time fraudsters open  social media accounts and post information purporting to be the victims. Some suspects further register their mobile phone numbers using the victim’s name to facilitate extortion.