Ian Wafula
@Ian_Wafula · Nairobi/London · joined 26 Jan 2011
International Freelance Journalist: CNN x BBC. CEO & Founder @sautisessions. Ex-Africa Security Correspondent @BBCWorld.
32 370Followers
2 791Following
11 578Posts total
4MViews on collected posts
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Hello @AhmedrashidB please follow back for DM.
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Hello @ByronAdera. Please follow back for DM.
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UPDATE: North Imenti MP Rahim Dawood, a huge supporter of the Imenti airstrip proposal has taken a turn on his stance following my investigation that found two elephants using the proposed site. https://t.co/yeMEACjbt3
3.7K views · 73 likes
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@Ian_Wafula @SautiSessions 2027 elections are personal. Will be removing people who destroyed our ecosystem
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Those attendees showed me mobile-money messages totalling KES 100,000 and displaying the name Caleb Mutethia Kibuko. Who they identified as MCA for Municipality Ward. They declined to share the messages over safety concerns, so we could not independently verify the transactions.
5.9K views · 73 likes
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Government maintains the project would improve forest management, emergency response and regional economic development. But with court challenges ongoing, one question remained: When did the proposal become a decision? Catch the full investigation here: https://t.co/fhnWJv8Vtq
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We also put our findings and questions to the Kenya Forest Service, including on the PFMP, clearing before public participation and wildlife impact. KFS had not responded by the time of publication. https://t.co/Qd6y9nEWbg
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MCA Caleb told me the airstrip was part of the forest’s Participatory Forest Management Plan. We checked the published Upper Imenti PFMP 2022–2026. We found no explicit mention of an airstrip anywhere in the plan. https://t.co/aIT2t8bj97 https://t.co/LuyFmIGmW9
4.5K views · 73 likes
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Independent satellite analysis commissioned for our investigation found evidence of land clearing before the 8 July 2026 public participation meeting.That raised a simple question: if clearing had already begun, what meaningful influence could the public still have? https://t.co/
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The meeting itself descended into confrontation. Our footage shows repeated attempts to prevent environmental activist Kamanu M’Tuamwari from speaking. Several attendees later told me they had been paid to be there. https://t.co/4ZVvq0TDNu
5.7K views · 101 likes
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THREAD: My latest investigation into the proposed Upper Imenti airstrip found two elephants walking across the cleared runway area. Our aerial reporting reinforced concerns that the site lies within an important elephant movement corridor. @SautiSessions https://t.co/ziobe6IAYi
229.6K views · 1.4K likes
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0:18
Independent satellite analysis commissioned for our investigation found evidence of land clearing before the 8 July 2026 public participation meeting.That raised a simple question: if clearing had already begun, what meaningful influence could the public still have? https://t.co/
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@Ian_Wafula @BBCAfrica $100 against $5000 is just ridiculous. shows you how lucrative the mercenary business is. this means they're not making money when there is peace.
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DR Congo’s government did not respond to the huge pay disparity between the private contractors and the Congolese troops. It was also not clear how much the it had spent on the contractors. Here's the full article: https://t.co/PBJvrTLSQk
52.9K views · 417 likes
· 174 reposts · 23 replies
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DR Congo spokesperson @PatrickMuyaya told me in June 2024 that ‘They (Rwanda) have been propagating lies for years,’ adding that ‘We have some instructors who come to train our military forces because we know we have this urgent situation.’
46K views · 207 likes
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Meanwhile, the @UN defines a mercenary as someone who is recruited to fight in a conflict for personal gain. The UN also considers the use of mercenaries to violate human rights and the right to self-determination.
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Rwanda through spokesperson @YolandeMakolo has repeatedly accused DR Congo of hiring mercenaries and violating the Geneva Conventions.
https://t.co/OPawo2Yqj9
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When I asked Horatiu Potra, the head of Association RALF, whether his soldiers had engaged in combat against the rebels, he responded, "We have to protect ourselves. If M23 attacks us, they won’t simply say, ‘Oh, you’re just instructors—go home.’ He has since cut communication. h
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Vasile's family said he was a police officer in Romania before taking a sabbatical to work as an instructor for the Congolese army. He was struggling to pay for an apartment he had just acquired and needed more money. https://t.co/pX5YamHPCI
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In fact some Romanians died on the frontline. In February 2024, Vasile Badea was one of two Romanians who were killed when Congolese convoy was ambushed by the M23 on its way to Sake, a frontline town near Goma I spoke to his family and they allowed me to visit his grave. https:/
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It appears that the Romanian instructors from Association RALF went beyond training the Congolese soldiers as they had agreed with the DR Congo government. One senior commander I met just outside Bucharest told me they were guarding key positions outside Goma on 12hr shifts. http
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2. Congo Protection, a Congolese company represented by Thierry Kongolo, and “Association RALF”, a Romanian enterprise with “ex-Romanians from the French Foreign Legion” headed by Horatiu Potra. More details below: https://t.co/Q3RGn8iWhF
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A UN group of experts report detailed two private military companies that signed contracts with DR Congo's government in 2022 to bolster its forces against the rebels.
1. Agemira RDC which employed Bulgarian, Belarusian, Georgian, Algerian, French and Congolese nationals.
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Unfortunately, the fate of the soldier remains unknown after M23 rebels attacked his base in Kibati, near Goma, killing many of his fellow soldiers, including his commander. My messages to his What's App number have not been delivered since Monday the 27th Jan. https://t.co/RbX7V
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To the Congolese soldiers this was demoralising. One said on anonymity “The pay is unfair. When it comes to fighting, we are the ones sent to the front lines first.”
He revealed that his small pay of $100 a month was often delayed or unpaid altogether.
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A contract of a senior level Romanian I reviewed specified a starting salary of $5,000 per month during active duty and $3,000 during periods of leave-'indefinitely' unless terminated. The soldiers were taking a one-month break after every three months of deployment. See below:
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THREAD: I have spent months investigating the foreign mercenaries in DR Congo. I met some of them in Romania & Goma. One Romanian mercenary’s salary equaled that of 50 Congolese soldiers. The government says they are just 'instructors' but this is not entirely true @BBCAfrica. ht
1.4M views · 10.7K likes
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This afternoon, the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) received and escorted over 280 Romanian mercenaries who had been fighting alongside the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) in Eastern part of DRC. These mercenaries surrendered to M23 following the capture h
1.4M views · 8.8K likes
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Against accounts of the same size
12 posts from the last 90 days, next to the 10K–100K follower range. shown far beyond its own audience, and the audience reacts.
Median views4 222this account924median for 10K–100K
Reach, %13.04%this account3.62%median for 10K–100K
Engagement, %2.51%this account1.52%median for 10K–100K
| Metric | This account | Median for 10K–100K | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median views per post | 4 222 | 924 | 4.57× |
| Reach (views ÷ followers) | 13.04% | 3.62% | 3.60× |
| Engagement rate | 2.51% | 1.52% | 1.65× |
Others in this range → Compare with another account → How these benchmarks are built →
Growth & engagement
How the posts we collected actually performed: views and reaction rate post by post, what the audience did with them, and where the follower count goes.
Views per post
52.9K31 Jan
11K
8.2K3 Sep
229.6K
5.7K
9.3K
4.5K
4K
3.7K
5.9K
2.4K
3.7K7 Sep
62918 Sep
61721 Sep
Last 14 collected posts, oldest on the left. The scale is logarithmic: one post can outrun the rest a hundred times over.
Engagement rate per post
1.17%31 Jan
1.21%
5.74%3 Sep
1.18%
2.59%
2.57%
2.53%
2.34%
2.48%
1.93%
3.14%
2.99%7 Sep
0.16%18 Sep
0.16%21 Sep
Reactions — likes, reposts, replies and quotes — divided by views. Median for 10K–100K accounts is 1.52%.
What the audience does
Likes63.5%26 770 in total
Reposts20.7%8 745 in total
Replies3.0%1 251 in total
Quotes1.6%683 in total
Bookmarks11.2%4 721 in total
Share of every reaction we collected for this account. Replies mean argument, reposts mean endorsement, bookmarks mean the post was worth keeping.
The follower curve appears once this account has two daily snapshots — we take one a day, and this one is on its first.
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