Long-serving Central Organization of Trade Unions in Kenya (COTU-K) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli on Friday, August 13, announced that he had bagged yet another international appointment.
This time, the self-proclaimed workers’ spokesman claimed to have been elected as chairman of a certain global fund in Europe.
Through a statement by the COTU Deputy Secretary-General Benson Okwaro, the workers union said Atwoli was elected the chairperson of the Global Workers Awareness Fund (GWAF) based in Sydney, Australia.
They added that Atwoli will serve for a period of three years and is expected to travel to Sydney for his acceptance speech at the body whose main objective they said is to “create awareness on social economic and political issues”.
“COTU (K) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli was today elected as the chairman of the Global Worker’s Awareness Fund that is based in Sydney, Australia, for the next three years. The objective of the fund is to create awareness on social economic and political issues,” COTU wrote on their social media page.
In a subsequent notice circulated moments later, the workers union claimed that the Global Workers Awareness Fund delegates who voted for Atwoli cited his “dedication and years of selfless service” as the key attributes for their choice.
However, while some netizens rushed to congratulate the COTU boss for his supposed new role, a section of quick-witted social media users raised a rather interesting twist to the tale.
As it turns out, a search on the internet discloses little to zero information on what exactly is the Global Worker’s, Awareness Fund.
In fact, when a curious social media user attempted to find out, the search results on Google only showed links to stories by Kenyan media published within Friday, August 13, 2021, the day the news was broke.
“So I got curious and searched “global workers awareness fund” search page one shows it only exists in KENYAN media, no other links,” wrote Kenyan feminist Betty Waitherero on Twitter.
Even more interesting, prior to the post by COTU announcing Atwoli’s election on Friday afternoon, there had been no other mention of the term “Global Worker’s, Awareness Fund” on the platform, ever.
This matter has now sparked confusion and debate over the veteran’s latest achievement.
Did Francis Atwoli actually fake his own election into a nonexistent international organization and the media blindly and quickly run the story?
Does Global Workers Awareness Fund really exist?
Where, exactly are their offices in Sydney, Australia and why can they not be located on Google Maps?
Who were the delegates that voted for Atwoli? Do they have names?
For now, only time can tell whether this is all just one big misunderstanding or confirm that Atwoli is some desperate, unaccomplished and underachieving busybody dangerously obsessed with himself.
