FALSE: Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome has no blood relations with Chief Justice Martha Koome
Written by Evance Adede on November 17, 2022
The claim going around that Chief Justice (CJ) Martha Koome and Inspector General Japhet Koome Nchebere are related is FALSE.
The claim has mostly gone viral on Facebook. This claim started circulating as soon as Japhet Koome was nominated by President William Ruto as the Inspector General of Police on 27th September 2022.
One of the posts that were shared on 28th September 2022 claimed that Japhet Koome is the brother of CJ Martha Koome. Another post published a few hours after the IG’s swearing-in claimed that he is married to the CJ.
Screenshots of posts claiming Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome has blood relations with Chief Justice Martha Koome.
However, both claims have been confirmed to be false. According to his statements shortly after taking the oath of office, IG Japhet Koome admitted that he had seen the claims on social media and went ahead to denounce them.
According to his statement, the IG said it was only a coincidence that CJ Martha Koome is married to one Mr Koome Kiragu and his name also ends with Koome but that does not mean they are related.
A screengrab of a video posted by KBC TV of Japhet Koome denying the claims.
According to Chief Justice Martha Koome’s biography, she was born in the year 1960 in Meru. She has a husband named Koome Kiragu and this completely disqualifies the first claim that IG Japhet Koome is her husband.
The CJ acquired the name Koome from her husband’s second name which is something that happens when a woman gets married. Therefore, the CJ and the IG are not siblings hence, not related.
This renders the claims to be just imaginations and non-factual.
This fact check was published by Sky FM with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck and the African Fact-Checking Alliance.
