The president has made quite a number of trips over the last two years and the recent 3 country tour led Kenyans on Twitter make fun of his numerous travels by tagging tweets with the hashtag #UhuruInKenya
A plausible reason why people reacted in this manner is due to the general lack of information from the government to the public about the intentions of the several visits. Most of the tweets tagged with the hashtag generally depicted the President as a traveller who is only in the country temporarily only to depart later to another country. Here are some of the most popular tweets that were posted using the #UhuruInKenya hashtag.
https://twitter.com/Mwangala_/status/673380847794397184
https://twitter.com/VoightKE/status/673404493795602432
Ati our President has changed from digital to aerial. #UhuruInKenya
— Kewa SK (@Steve_kewa) December 2, 2015
https://twitter.com/iGitz_/status/673457986535165952
Touring president Kenyatta will open this post Modern referral hospital in Mwingi #UhuruInKenya pic.twitter.com/KzBpDjAh2e
— Ole Teya (@TeyaKevin) December 6, 2015
https://twitter.com/BKhaniri/status/673748904614232064
Uhuru to meet key opposition leaders during his visit to Kenya #UhuruInKenya
— Aleckie Ronald (@SirAlexas) December 6, 2015
Kenyans go wild when Uhuru unexpectedly also starts his speech in Swahili…"Niaje Wasee" #UhuruInKenya pic.twitter.com/XwqH4bYjvW
— Nasir (@nasirkenya) December 6, 2015
Uhuru making a stop over in Kenya before proceeding with his world tour. #UhuruInKenya
— Fiona (@fiona_theartist) December 6, 2015
There is a parody Twitter account @UKKenyatta with the isuhuruinkenya.co.ke website in its bio which at the time displayed “NO” when opened but it is currently offline. There is also the @IsUhuruInKenya parody account that is dedicated to tweet about the president not being in the country.
https://twitter.com/UKKenyatta/status/673577171307335680
While I'm chilling in my presidential jet haters are posting on social media. I can't see them from way up here. https://t.co/Dl8zxHGFV3
— uhuru (@IsUhuruInKenya) December 6, 2015
On Facebook, the comments on the President’s official page was a concoction of varied opinions that ranged from concern of the legion of visits and others made fun of the situation.
https://www.facebook.com/myuhurukenyatta/posts/1181895398505678?comment_id=1181899165171968&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D
The official government Newsroom, Nexus, later on released a statement on Twitter about the President’s trips around Africa and the world. There is also an entire article that gave a summary of the intentions of the various visits the president made on the Nexus website.
In the year 2014, @PresidentKE Trips in Africa delivered the attached #TransformingKE pic.twitter.com/GXVqiPPnii
— Government of Kenya (@GovtOfKenya) December 6, 2015
This reaction to the President trips is all due to lack of information about the purpose of the trips and the cost and that is why the government was quick to release a graphic detailing what the country will be benefiting from. Unlike previous regimes where we relied on traditional mass media for information on this trips, we are rather fortunate to obtain this information from government run social media accounts and dedicated websites.
