Uhuru look-alike gifted a car

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s doppelganger, Michael Njogo Gitonga, has been gifted a Ksh700,000 vehicle by car-trading company Maridady Motors.

Gitonga received the 2013 Nissan Note at the company’s head office on Kiambu Road Friday morning.

He says he will use the car in taxi business.

“I wouldn’t want to fail after being given a Ksh700,000 asset. I want to continue growing, and if possible, expand my business,” he said.

Maridady Motors said they gifted Gitonga the vehicle as "part of our corporate social responsibility".

"We settled on him because we understand that the coronavirus crisis negatively affected his business," said the car-dealing firm's CEO, Eric Mwangi Ngige.

When his photographs were shared online early last month, many Kenyans noticed instantly Gitonga’s uncanny resemblance to President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Speaking to K24 Television on August 9 at his Umoja home in Nairobi, Gitonga said he couldn’t walk on the streets without people calling him “Uhunye”, the fond nickname Kenyans have given the President.

But unlike his real doppelgänger, he doesn’t have the financial wherewithal to dish out handouts to the hundreds who mistake him for President Kenyatta.

To avoid being harassed in public, Gitonga said he preferred donning his mask to hide his face from curious onlookers.

He expressed optimism that he would one day meet President Kenyatta to ask him whether they are indeed related.

Gotonga told K24 TV in the August interview that he relied on bar business in Umoja to eke a living. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, he was thrown out of business.

His mother, Michael said, worked as a security officer in Gatundu, Kiambu County but she passed on.