Barely a week ago, a teen mom called Shirleen Mukami was making headlines on all platforms. This was after she took to Twitter to share a heart-wrenching story of her tough pregnancy journey.
In a long post seen on Twitter, Shirleen narrated how she struggled since getting pregnant unexpectedly. And had to drop out of school. Adding that the guy denied the pregnancy and she lost friends as well.
Suddenly, my whole world collapsed around me. I dropped out of college, strained my relationship with my parents, lost friends, lost my social life, lost the man I loved, lost it all. I wasn’t prepared 4 the emotional strain a pregnancy can impact on a woman. My life went black.
The “initiative”
Shirleen went on to narrate how the pregnancy affected even her relationship with her family. And she wondered if other women may have gone through similar or worse situations. “I thought of all the young moms like me, in their early twenties. With no jobs, absent baby daddies, unsupportive families, little friends, and no cash. I couldn’t imagine how many we are. And wished our salaried ‘men’ knew what it meant to run away from their young pregnant lover.“
So for that reason, she and a friend decided to come up with an initiative dubbed Baby Shower Sisters. It is an organization that reaches out to young mothers facing social stigma. And so the post was meant to appeal help from Kenyans to contribute towards the initiative.
My idleness disturbed my mind, and I needed to occupy myself. And then I called up a friend.Together, we decided to do something to occupy our minds and spread our love and support to young mothers like us. My friend’s baby is five months too. We called a few other friends. Shared our story. Reached out to relatives and launched the ‘Baby Shower Sisters‘.
Shirleen exposed!
A lot of unsuspecting Kenyans fell for Shirleen’s story seen that it was very heartbreaking and emotional. As a result, they sent help her way using the M-changa account she had shared.
However, on Monday, 15th November, a fan reached out to the tea master himself Edgar Obare. And disclosed unknown details behind the Shirleen story.
The person disclosed that Shirleen’s baby daddy popularly known as Cabugah had orchestrated the whole ordeal.
Cabugah alias Kenneth Gachie is a former blogger at Ghafla Kenya and a social media strategist. Clearly, someone who knows his way with words.
It was reported that Cabugah lent out his car to a friend who got into an accident. The insurance declared it a write off and so the guy needs a new car. So he came up with the whole fabricated story to milk money from unsuspecting Kenyans so that he can buy a new car.
The fan went on to reveal how Cabugah planned the the whole thing and how he boasted of buying a new car when the donations were at half a million. Nikinunua gari mpya sasa kuna mtu ako na shida? He said
Cabugah- the mastermind
Cabugah created the whole Twitter thread that has gone international. And even used Shirleen’s pics to make it look real. He then asked his friends on Twitter to push the thread so that it goes far and wide.
Cabugah went on to boast that this was the biggest scam in Nairobi. His friends in the WhatsApp chat that were leaked are seen congratulating him for being a genius.
As of Monday 15th November, the donations were slightly over 800k.
Kenyans were left mouth agape after the revelation that they were scammed. The story had touched so many people both locally and internationally because even citizen tv covered the story.
Shirleen defends herself
Shirleen Mukami in an attempt to get out of the muddy situation shared a clip distancing herself from the rumors. And said that her intentions of the initiative are pure.
She also stated that she had reached out to Gachie in order to popularise the campaign as he was good at social media.
“I, a single mom, approached Kenneth Gachie to help me popularize my initiative. As stated here already, he has been good at that and successfully did a campaign for his sister last year to buy an electric wheelchair and make donations to spinal injury victims.”
“I‘ve known Kenneth to be good with social media and believed he would help popularize my initiative and he did,” she stated.
“I’ve called him about the chats with his boys and he said they were simply idle chats that he and his boys normally have. I feel terrible about the chats and how they have affected what I thought was going to be my biggest break.”
See video.
Kenyans are still in disbelief after the expose. So what are your thoughts on this story?