Through a Facebook page, an impostor group was advertising the recruitment of trainees at a Sh300 fee

Members of Sonko Rescue Team cleaning the city in a past exercise.[File|Standard]

Governor Mike Sonko has warned city residents of fake social media accounts purporting to recruit 10,000 Sonko Rescue Team youths at a fee.

Through a statement, the governor revealed there was a Facebook page named ‘Sonko Rescue Team Kenya’ which was advertising the recruitment of trainees at a fee of Sh300.

He clarified that no such recruitment was ongoing and that people were not required to part with money to join the team.

“There are over 5,000 fake Mike Sonko/Sonko Rescue Team accounts and there is no recruitment taking place. We do not request for any recruitment fee, neither do we give out motorbikes,” said the governor.

A spot check by The Metropolitan into the fake account revealed that when ‘applying’, one was required to give information on the county of origin, with first-time applicants required to part with a fee of Sh300 allegedly to facilitate training.

“All first-time applicants are required to pay a fee of Sh300 only, which is automatically refunded if YOU DO NOT qualify for recruitment,” read the page.

Good pay

It further states that successful recruits would earn between Sh25,000 and Sh40,000 depending on their job description. They even promised that successful applicants would be contacted before the end of the month.

The payment method is by sending money through Mpesa to a number ‘0746269580’ belonging to an officer identified as Simon who is allegedly the chief recruitment officer.

Interestingly, after application, one is told to wait for the officials to review their details and notify the applicants on when they should commence training.

Governor Sonko, however, observed that there was only one genuine Facebook account which had been verified and had a following of 1.3 million.

“Please take note that the Facebook accounts where such adverts are placed are fake and should be ignored. Very soon the long arm of the law will catch up with them,” wrote Sonko.

Sonko Rescue Team is an initiative of the governor meant to enhance service delivery and promises made during the run-up to the 2013 General Election.

The team caught the public eye after Sonko, then the city senator, deployed the youths to clean up city streets by collecting garbage.

This led to a confrontation with the then Governor Evans Kidero who said they were taking up the county workers' job.

Rescue mission

Kidero would even go as far as accusing Sonko of interfering with county duties but the heat died down after the team was registered as a Non-Governmental Organisation.

After the elections, the youths were also hired to bring down campaign posters that had covered the city, much to the amusement of residents.

The team recently conducted a search and rescue mission of four individuals after a plane crash at Lake Nakuru.

In the recent past however, the once ‘visible force is nowhere to be seen, presumably choosing to operate from a distance.

However, the services they offered such as Sonko Rescue Team ambulances, distributing clean water in light of the shortage and hearse services are still intact.

Their ‘Ng'arisha Jiji initiative’ recently reverted to the county government.

Some people in the city say that the team's disappearance from the limelight stemmed from a confrontation with the police.

They claim that during one of their routine clean-ups, the youths clashed with the police, leading to a ban being slapped on them by city police boss Japheth Koome.

Others however say the team has been temporarily recalled from performing county government-related duties to avoid a conflict of interest.