Wilkings Fadhili Odinga: Self-proclaimed brand strategist exposed as con

Self-proclaimed Kenyan brand strategist Wilkings Fadhili Odinga has been exposed to be a scam masquerading as the mastermind behind the success of various corporates and individuals.

Fadhili has previously been featured as a mentor on Safaricom’s youth mentorship network, Blaze, as well as in the Business Daily’s Top 40 Under 40 Kenyans. He is the founder and CEO of Fashion Torch and BrandLab Africa, an organization handling personal branding.

Fadhili was, however, unmasked on Saturday after purporting that journalist Larry Madowo was one of his clients, whom he has been managing and is now competing globally.

Taking to Twitter, Madowo, who is BBC Africa Business Editor, slammed Mr. Fadhili for claiming he had played a pivotal role in expanding his (Madowo’s) brand worldwide.

“I don’t know who this individual is and I’ve never met him. I’m taking legal action so don’t get conned using my name,” wrote Madowo.

⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️
I don’t know who this individual is and I’ve never met him. I’m taking legal action so don’t get conned using my name pic.twitter.com/uHwhJlgGcy

— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) January 26, 2019

Madowo’s post appeared to have opened a Pandora’s box with a Kenyans online, with a number of Kenyan celebrities coming out to distance themselves from Fadhili.

Popular music group Elani also dismissed Fadhili’s claim of being their brand strategist saying he is not a part of their management team.

Hello #TeamElani. We have been notified of a conman named Wilkins Odinga Fadhilii @wilkinsfadhili who has been pretending to be our "brand strategist" and part of our Management team.

We would like to inform you and the public that we DO NOT know him, we have NEVER MET… 1/4 pic.twitter.com/lKQqDBKsSu

— Elani (@elanimuziki) January 26, 2019

Radio host Adelle Onyango jumped on the bandwagon saying Fadhili, in the past, also claimed to be representing her but later pulled down the post after he was contacted by her actual management team.

– @wilkinsfadhili he posted a similar post about me. My management reached out to him told him to pull it down and post a retraction, he pulled it down but no retraction. https://t.co/MCz5uEPJRx

— Adelle Onyango (@ADELLEO) January 26, 2019

Fadhili has come under heavy backlash from Kenyans on social media, with Twitter user Ruth Ambogo narrating how she lost her money at the hands of a man who has now been tagged a fraudster.

"WILKINGS FADHILI ODINGA THE CITY CONMAN: Revelation of how I was conned and almost landed in jail."

I thought it best to give this revelation a dissertation-like title becoz folks this is indeed one.
I am exposing @wilkinsfadhili in this thread

Coffee is served stay tuned☕

— Ruth Ambogo (@RuthAmbogo) January 27, 2019

Following the uproar, Fadhili on Sunday took to Facebook saying: “Goodbye, I’ve made mistakes and now life has no meaning at all, bye everyone.”

Previously, in a news feature, which has since been pulled down, Fadhili had told a local daily that he used to make at least Ksh.30,000 daily by cooking 3,000 chapatis a day to pay for his Masters in the United Kingdom; a story most Kenyans on Twitter found fishy.