Kenya’s former Prime Minister was apparently hacked to promote a scam token project. The announcement post on his X profile was deleted, and its video was almost certainly a deepfake.
The project’s name and branding closely resemble another semi-official project with glaring red flags. This confusing quagmire raises many remaining questions.
What is Kenya Token?
Kenya has an underrated presence in the international crypto community, with pockets of grassroots adoption and major business partnerships conducted by the government.
However, the new “Kenya Token” apparently tried to profit from this situation rather than contribute to it.
Raila Odinga, the country’s former Prime Minister, was apparently hacked to announce the Kenya Token project. Soon after, though, it was removed, prompting concerns about a hack.
Comparing the accompanying video to Odinga’s actual speaking voice, it seems extremely likely that this post was an AI-generated deepfake.
The scam may have fallen apart, but there are many unanswered questions. These red flags could be an important lesson, especially as scam prevention techniques are failing the community.
Who’s Behind This Scam?
For example, analysts discovered a massive level of insider bundling with Kenya Digital Token (KDT). This is a totally separate asset apparently endorsed by sitting government officials, so the scam project may have tried to piggyback on KDT’s branding.
Even this semi-official project was covered in red flags, however. Immediately after one KDT wallet conducted a TGE, 141 other accounts sniped 20% of the total supply. The site marketed these tokens as “locked for the people,” but they’re in private hands.
This led the community to speculate that Kenya Digital Token is a rug pull in the making. After all, LIBRA promoter Hayden Davis was in advanced talks with top-level Nigerian officials to launch a meme coin. In other words, there’s plenty of precedent for semi-official token scams.
Technically speaking, Davis could be personally involved in Kenya Digital Token. He won a major legal breakthrough last month and participated in another token snipe less than a week afterward. If there are no consequences for underhanded behavior, the patterns could continue.
All that is to say, a little early skepticism about an unrelated project may have helped the community. The deepfaked scam had no relation to Kenya Digital Token, but the “real” project may also be fraudulent.
Even if the rumored association between the tokens was incorrect, the underlying hesitation was not.
Red flags like that are crucially important in today’s environment. If investors wish to stay on top of this crypto crime supercycle, they need to develop sharp instincts and extensive caution.
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