Nairobi, May 31, 2024— Cleophas Malala, the acting secretary general of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), has claimed that the party's official social media pages were compromised by hackers. However, this assertion has been strongly refuted by Dennis Itumbi, a prominent digital strategist associated with UDA.
In a video message circulated on Friday, May 31, Malala urged the public to disregard any messages from the UDA Facebook page, stating it had been hacked. "We want to announce that our communication platforms, that is the official UDA Facebook page, has been hacked by an unknown person who is not a member of the secretariat. I'd like to urge the members of the public to ignore any communication from the page moving forward. We've made reports to the Facebook administrators that our account has been hacked," Malala declared.
Contrary to Malala's claims, Itumbi took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to assure the public that all UDA social media pages were secure and operational. He stated, "The United Democratic Alliance, @UDAKenya, pages are safe across social media; ignore anyone saying anything to the contrary."
The incident adds to recent internal tensions within the UDA. Just before Malala's hacking claims, the UDA Electoral and Nomination Disputes Resolution Committee (ENDRC) had flagged another statement from Malala regarding the postponement of party elections in West Pokot County. Dr. Adrian Kamotho, the vice chairperson of ENDRC, clarified that the order referenced by Malala was not issued by their committee. "Our attention is drawn to a public notice issued by the acting Secretary General of the UDA party purporting to reference an order of the Electoral and Nomination Disputes Resolution Committee (ENDRC). The referenced order is FAKE and the same did not emanate from ENDRC," Dr. Kamotho stated.
This ongoing discord within the party's leadership raises concerns about communication and transparency, especially as the UDA navigates its internal elections and broader political strategy.
