On several occasions, Kenyans have had to deal with cases of cooked up stories revolving around deaths of prominent persons, only for them to reemerge later to deny the claims.
Though this appears to be on the increase currently, where politicians and artists are 'killed' on social media, it appears that the habit has been there for quite a long time.
One such incident was the reported death of Vioja Mahakamani actor Charles Kimani Kangara alias Masaku on the morning of a day in December 1999.
Through the dailies, the police had announced that Masaku was attacked by robbers the previous night in his house in Eastlands and stabbed him with a dagger.
It was alleged that he died from massive bleeding before his brother Joseph Kuria found his body lying in a footpath and took it to the City Mortuary for postmortem.
Ironically, the man would later the same morning report to work at the Nation Media, assuring his colleagues that he was alive and doing well contrary to the reports.
"I am very much alive and well as you can see," he said as quoted by Daily Nation, with deeper probe indicating that the dead one was Peter Mbuthia alias Mutiso, who also featured in Vitimbi and Vioja Mahakamani.
It was found out that Masaku's image was used in reporting Mutiso's murder.
The comedian's real death caught up with him in June last year.