Uhuru’s Twitter Account Activity Raises Questions. On Friday, March 22, 2019, President Uhuru Kenyatta, left 3.62 million of his ardent Twitter followers in limbo after he suspended all his social media accounts.
Strangely, exactly one year later (March 22, 2020), the user handle on twitter -@UKenyatta – sent out a tweet from the blues.
“Covid—19 is a global pandemic. Everyone should take their responsibility to enforce the recommendations from the ministry of health. So far, we have tried but we need to do even better. It’s not time to point fingers, but to unite, inform and help where necessary #IgnorantKenyans,” reads the tweet.
However, in president Uhuru’s case, the username remained inactive for exactly one year, raising questions as to who the individual sending out tweets under the president’s former handle could be.
The new account is unverified and currently has 641 followers and counting.
Interestingly, the new account holder currently follows only three individuals namely: Public Relations Guru Gina Din, Citizen TV presenter Jeff Koinange and business mogul Chris Kirubi.
The account has so far sent out 12 tweets, with the latest shared on March 23, quoting the president’s latest directive concerning the Coronavirus epidemic.
“Government will take severe action on those who do not adhere to measures we have put in place risking the lives of all of us – President Uhuru Kenyatta #coronaviruskenya,” it reads.
Back in 2018, a Twiplomacy study (by Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW), an international communications agency), showed that President Uhuru was the most followed leader in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Rwanda’s Paul Kagame – @PaulKagame, and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari – @MBuhari, with more than 1 million followers each.
Most heads of state and government officials across the world have a presence on Twitter, which they use or varying reasons, but mostly to send out information and, rarely, to interact with their citizens.
Former US President Barack Obama is the most followed politician with 109.9 million followers on his personal Twitter account, followed by US President Donald Trump with 71.3 million followers according to the latest available data.
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