I reported this source for being weird, though “looks weird” is just scratching the surface of the weirdness, dear friends!
tl;dr this source is WEIRD.
First, “Have It Cheap Group International News Agency” is a weird name. I can’t figure out what Have It Cheap Group International actually does, but their website is dead (www.haveitcheap.com) and their name mostly appears in posts written by their president. The logo from their wordpress blog says:
Contact us for International Diplomacy, selling& [sic] buying of cars, Professional Website Designing [sic], Overseas Education/Medical Services, Precious, Minerals, Online Dating, Models, Actors & Actresses, VIP Appointments, Buying & Selling of Property, Events Management & Security, Solar Panels and much more.
So I guess they just do EVERYTHING. Where else can you one stop shop for an actress, two solar panels, and a negotiated agreement on Arctic sovereignty? Quit making me drive around for this stuff, people!
Their editor-in-chief, Earnest Kivumbi Benjamin, does seem to be the owner/president of both companies. He claims to be an award-winning journalist, though I can’t find a record of that either. He also claims to have been frequently covered by al-Jazeera and the BBC but I cannot find a single reference to him. He says that the UN named him one of the “Top 5” journalists in Uganda. I don’t think the UN actually does that! The African Centre for Media Excellence gives out awards, though, and guess what? He’s never been nominated for one. In fact, he doesn’t appear on any list of Ugandan journalists I’ve seen, including this one.
He announced his intention to run for President of Uganda in 2021, though he was definitely not a candidate and he’s considering running for President of Africa in 2027 which, to my knowledge, is not a real office. On his blog, where he refers to himself as “Africa’s Future President”, he speculates that Trump was made President by God to bring Christianity back to the US by re-criminalizing homosexuality and sodomy through the SCOTUS (May 3, 2022). So he’s a colourful guy.
He’s also the CEO of Heal The Planet Global Organization, another opaque, nebulous organization, that just seems to mostly host videos of him speaking. The topics are all over the map but here’s one of him thanking God for directing Putin to help Syria. Here’s one titled “Heal The Planet Letter to Obama Daughters Could Avert World War III” that’s just a silent photo montage of the Obamas.
At least some of the news agency content is purely self-promotional. This “Special Report” says that this - so far as I can tell - obscure man, E K Benjamin, is “on spotlight by key United States Agencies including CIA as a potential visionary young man to take on mantle of a continent”. Yowza.
Neither he nor the organization seem to have much reach. EKB’s Instagram account has about 1000 followers and almost none of his posts have even a single like or comment. The news organization has about 2100 Facebook followers, 2000 Twitter followers, and their highest view count on YouTube is 250. None of the people or entities involved have Wikipedia pages.
Moderation decisions aside (I’m fine with whatever), can we just acknowledge that that is a festive bowl of weird? It’s kind of impressive how weird it is. I don’t think there’s anything really sinister going on here, but I’m pretty confident this whole operation is the self-aggrandizing grift of one strange but fascinating man.
But sitting down and actually reading it, it’s well written, well sourced, and cross referenced with other news sources, accurate.
It’s tough getting ANY kind of news out of the Congo so, for now, I think the source is fine.
If it goes off the rails talking about Trump being chosen by God or rabidly homophobic slurs we’ll have to re-visit that opinion. :)
If anyone is interested on a good book on the topic of the UN and Congo, I highly suggest “No Mercy: A Journey Into the Heart of the Congo” by Redmond O’Hanlon who had previously written about his travels to Borneo and the Amazon.
Be advised, it gets incredibly dark. Everyone involved is lucky they made it back.
Sorry, I’m sure you’re sick to death of this and I promise I’ll leave it alone after this but… I took a moment to have a closer look at the content here and this does seem like the kind of grift I thought it was. EKB is not actually doing news gathering or even writing these articles, which explains why the writing quality is so much better than his.
This article was originally published a day earlier by The East African and copied word-for-word (including their links to background articles). The unattributed author is Agence France Presse, who have a great reputation. I checked every article currently on their front page and it’s the same for each one. In addition to the East African, he’s copied CNN, BBC, One Africa News Today, and Africa News verbatim. He then tacks on a video (filmed in a mall?) calling for investors to help him raise $14.5B to expand into a global media company. I love this guy! :)
This is really just a plagiarized/copyright-infringing news aggregator. It’s pretty low risk misinfo-wise since he seems to exclusively rip off very credible news organizations. The “ad” on the page is just a static image promoting his everything store that probably only exists on paper, so I don’t see how he’s even making money from this outside of donations. Again, a strange but fascinating man, our EKB.
Alright, leaving it there. Thanks again for the discussion. This was a fun little research project. Might start an EKB blog though cuz I can’t wait to see what he gets up to next! :)
Inspired and driven by the desire to serve and lead, Kivumbi Earnest Benjamin adheres to maximizing his strength and experience towards changing communities and the world.
A dedicated Investigative Journalist, Team Leader and Business Entrepreneur with experience in politics and Non Profit Services.
This is a true definition of Kivumbi Earnest Benjamin aka E K Benj.
hicginewsagency.com
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