Online scammers are systematically ripping off Kenyan poultry farmers with phantom day-old chicks, ghost feed deliveries and counterfeit brand affiliations. The playbook is simple, highly effective and entirely preventable if you stop making purchasing decisions based on greed and panic.
Here is how the fraud operates: Scammers lift photos of massive incubators or stacked feed bags from legitimate hatcheries, post them on Facebook farming groups or WhatsApp, and price them below market rate. You will see Broiler day old chicks listed for 60 KES when the baseline production cost is 100+ KES. They claim to have stock ready for immediate countrywide dispatch.
The hook is the M-Pesa deposit. They demand a "booking fee," "commitment fee," or "transport facilitation" to secure the order. Once the money hits their phone, the number goes dead.
Stop falling for this. If you are sourcing chicks or feeds online, run these filters before sending a single shilling:
Filter 1: The Fake Agent Play. Scammers are cloning the social media pages of major hatcheries and feed millers or claiming to be "authorized regional distributors." They steal official logos, forge letterheads and post fake price lists. Scammers specifically exploit the distribution gap in rural counties, knowing farmers want to avoid heavy transport costs from major hubs like Nairobi or Nakuru. Never trust a Facebook page just because it has a brand. Verify the agent directly by calling the primary manufacturer's official customer care line listed on their verified website.
Filter 2: The Price Defies Math. Hatching eggs, incubation power and genetics have hard, unavoidable costs. Quality grower mash has hard ingredient costs. If someone is selling day-old chicks or 50kg bags of feed significantly below the production baseline, it is a scam.
Filter 3: The Physical Location Test. Demand a Google Maps pin drop to their physical hatchery or feed mill. Tell them you are sending a pickup to collect the order in person. Scammers will immediately invent excuses—claiming "strict protocols," "we only do deliveries," or "the farm is closed to visitors." Legitimate suppliers have verifiable dispatch locations.
Filter 4: Manufactured Urgency. Scammers fabricate scarcity to bypass your critical thinking. "Only two boxes of Kienyeji left," or "The truck is leaving Nakuru in 10 minutes, send the deposit now."
Filter 5: Personal M-Pesa Lines. If the payment prompt shows a personal name disconnected from a registered business entity (Buy Goods/Paybill), kill the deal. While scammers can acquire Till numbers, personal lines for supposed large-scale agricultural suppliers are a massive red flag.
We supply verified feeds and Day Old Chicks. Our prices reflect actual market inputs, our dispatch locations exist and you can collect in person from any of our branches at Ruai, Nakuru or Kitengela. Stop wiring deposits to anonymous Facebook accounts and start treating your farm procurement like an actual business.