The Kenyan influencer promoting denial

[Pelican Press 0]

The Kenyan influencer promoting denial

X/JusperMachogu

Climate change deniers have found a new champion in Kenyan farmer Jusper Machogu. On social media, he has become known as a flagbearer for fossil fuels in *******, but there is more to his campaign than meets the eye.

At first glance, the 29-year-old Mr Machogu is just a young farmer with a knack for social media.

On X, formerly

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, he regularly posts videos of himself weeding his land, planting garlic, or picking avocados – offering viewers a window into life in rural Kisii, south-west Kenya.

While farming content may get him clicks, likes, and retweets, it is Mr Machogu’s denial of man-made climate change that has helped supercharge his online profile.

Since he began posting debunked theories about climate change, he has received thousands of dollars in donations – some of which came from individuals in Western countries linked to fossil-fuel interests.

Mr Machogu insists this has not influenced his views, saying they are genuinely held.

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

that the Earth is heating up because of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere when we ***** fossil fuels – like oil, gas, or coal.

But Mr Machogu disagrees.

“Climate change is mostly natural. A warmer climate is good for life,” Mr Machogu wrongly claimed in a tweet posted in February, along with the hashtag #ClimateScam (which he has used hundreds of times).

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

******* is “one of the lowest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change”.

However, it is also “

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

” to climate change and its effects – including more intense and frequent heatwaves, prolonged droughts, and devastating floods.

Despite all this, Mr Machogu continues to insist “there is no climate crisis”.

On social media, he has repeatedly posted unfounded claims that man-made climate change is not only a “scam” or a “hoax”, but also a ploy by Western nations to “keep ******* poor”.

“[His views] are definitely coming up from a place of lack of understanding,” says Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist from Kenya who has contributed to IPCC reports.

Dr Joyce Kimutai

Joyce Kimutai says Mr Machogu’s views are not shared by many Kenyans

“This is not religion, this is not just belief. It’s about analysing the data and seeing changes in the data.

“Saying that climate [change] is a hoax is just really not true,” Dr Kimutai added.

Mr Machogu began tweeting false and misleading claims about climate change in late 2021, after carrying out his “own research” into the topic.

Since then, he has launched his own campaign – which he dubbed “Fossil Fuels for *******” – arguing that the continent should be tapping into its vast reserves of oil, gas, and coal.

“We need fossil fuels to develop our *******,” Mr Machogu tweeted last year.

This view appears to be shared by some ******** governments, who have given their go-ahead to new oil and gas projects despite pledging to “

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

” from fossil fuels.

Leaders like Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni have argued that

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

for Western nations to impose restrictions on ******** states, when they have become rich from fossil fuels.

But climate activists like 24-year-old Nicholas Omonuk, from Uganda, point out that fossil fuel exploration has not always been a synonym for growth and development in *******.

“In [Nigeria’s] ****** Delta, there’s been oil extraction since the 1900s, but people there are still poor and are still suffering from health risks and from pollution,” he said.

Getty Images

Crude oil pollution has affected fishing and farming communities in Nigeria’s ****** Delta

And yet, Mr Machogu believes he has found a willing audience for his message – he has more than 25,000 followers on X.

“I think Africans are really embracing the fact that I’m saying: ‘Fossil fuels for *******’,” he told the BBC.

But by tracking conversations involving Mr Machogu’s X handle, BBC Verify found that most users engaging with his account are actually based in the US, the ***, and Canada.

Many of those users also promote *********** theories online – not just about climate change, but also about vaccines, Covid-19, or the war in Ukraine.

However niche its views may be, this online community has thrown its support behind Mr Machogu and helped him fund his campaign.

“Through saying whatever I say, I have seen my follower count going up and I’ve got people reaching out to me saying: how can we help you?,” he said.

On X, Mr Machogu has accused climate activists of alarmism

BBC Verify looked at fundraising pages set up by Mr Machogu and found that, in the last two years, he has raised more than $9,000 (£7,000) from donations.

Mr Machogu has posted online about using some of these funds to furnish his new home.

But he also claims to have used donations to help dozens of local families by building a borehole for water, distributing gas bottles for cooking, or connecting their homes to the electricity grid.

Among his donors were individuals with links to the fossil fuel industry and to groups known for promoting climate change denial.

But Mr Machogu rejects suggestions that those donations have had any impact on his opinions on climate change.

“Nobody has told me to change my views,” Mr Machogu insists.

“I don’t have a problem with making money while saying what I believe I should say or doing what’s good for my community.”

By sharing his views online, he has undoubtedly caught the eye of many in the West who share his stance on fossil-fuel exploration and climate change.

********* author Jordan Peterson retweeted one of his posts about fossil fuels, describing him as an “actual ********”, in contrast with what Mr Peterson called the “poor, oppressed, useless ********” supposedly imagined by “globalist utopians”.

A US fossil fuel advocate paid for Mr Machogu to travel to South ******* for a conference promoting ******** oil and gas late last year.

And, just months before, a film crew from the *** travelled to Kisii to interview him for a new documentary that described climate change as an “eccentric environmental scare”.

To some, Mr Machogu’s new-found popularity has not come as a surprise.

“There’s been a real ********** in fossil fuel development projects in *******,” says Amy Westervelt, a US investigative climate reporter who covers attempts to obstruct climate policy.

“And because a lot of countries are passing policies that are limiting fossil fuels, ******* is also seen as a big market.

“So, it’s very helpful to have people in ******* saying: ‘We want these projects’.”

That is certainly a point Mr Machogu has made – again and again – on social media.

But Dr Kimutai says his promotion of fossil fuels, along with his denial of man-made climate change, could have consequences.

“Because we still have low climate literacy levels in ******* and in Kenya, and if that *********** theory spreads to communities or to people, it could just really undermine climate action.

“That is really, really dangerous.”

More stories from BBC Verify:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Kenyan #influencer #promoting #denial

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

For verified travel tips and real support, visit: https://hopzone.eu/