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How Kenyans on Twitter ‘killed’ Moody Awori


Monday evening and the country was fooled by a Kenyan who generated fake Twitter screenshots of Former Vice President Moody Awori’s death.

This was a case of a joke gone too far as the user faked the tweets from three credible Twitter accounts, that of Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Nation Media’s breaking news handle, Daily Nation handle and majority leader Aden Duale’s account.

It is suspected that the user generated the fake tweets using a website that has that function and shared the screen shots on Twitter and in the process fooling so many Kenyans.

BAD JOKE

Damage was controlled when some tweeps called up the family members of Mr Awori and confirmed that he was in perfect health and they went on to share the news.

ODM’s @EtalePhil tweeted, “Ladies & gentleman, Hon. Moody Awori’s daughter says Mzee is well an in bed. Please ignore this bad joke.”

Blogger @C_NyaKundiH tweeted, “Confirmed: Moody Awori is not dead, Ignore rumors.”

Fake tweets about prominent people’s death have in the past been generated using various websites that allow users to make them for fun.

On December 3, 2013, Paris Hilton’s account was used to announce that South Africa’s Nelson Mandela had died, this was two days before he died.