What are the Moments of 2015, Through the Kenyans on Twitter lens?

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Uhuru Kenyatta

Uhuru Kenyatta

1. #UhuruInKenya – Kenyans gave President Uhuru a piece of their mind for the fact that he seems to be more out of the country than in and about. With a website isUhuruinKenya.co.ke signaling his movements in and out of the country, the memes especially spelt out the sentiments of Kenyans on the President’s touring tendencies. A PR spin by the government fell on deaf ears – as usual.

2. #NyakundiExposed – when a leaked tape surfaced of ‘certified noisemaker’ Cyprian Nyakundi extorting Kes. 50M from a BIDCO representative, with Xtian Dela acting as middleman, it threw Twitter into disarray when many realized that Nyakundi is no more than a gun for hire. Well, what else is new under the sun.

 

3. #Hotbedof(insert awesome Kenyan feat) – CNN called Kenya a ‘hotbed of terror’, and walked right into the fire. This led to Kenya pulling off it’s tourism ads from the network, and a senior CNN executive had to come apologize to the president personally. That right there gives you a glimpse into the clout that #KOT have on the media scene.

4. #PoleKwaMwirigi – In a nutshell: @thisisEss got engaged. Bobby (@Mwirigi) was heartbroken. @Currie_Powder sent him commiserations, and started off a spiral that saw the biggest newsjacking moment of 2015. With over 52 million impressions (we tracked it), Bobby became the story. We hope all those brands that promised him stuff did actually deliver on their promises.

 

5. #1MillionforJadudi – The biggest use of social media for good this year saw BikoZulu pen a piece that tugged on our heartstrings and wallets, and in a record 24 hours we had raised 6 million bob towards the cause. Drama about how the money was utilized surfaced but it still didn’t beat the fact that KOT aren’t heartless bastards all the time. Keep it up!

6. #BoycottBrandX and #BRANDXonTrial – The new wave of angry customers keeps rearing it’s head through a call to boycott this and that. The biggest brand fiasco held Nakumatt hostage with #NakumattonTrial, prompting the brand to apologize and correct the pricing on items on their shelves. However, we’re still wondering who runs that COFEK account, cause they’re like a hamster let loose on the keyboard – irrelevant tagging and shouting all over our TLs.

7. Barack Obama and The Pope graced our Kenyan soil this year, and the internet went into overdrive with everyone wanting to discuss and debate their presence and actions while in Kenya. Actual experts, the media and more kept us in the know with blow-by-blow updates featured on the hashtags #PopeinKenya and #ObamainKenya, with The Beast and the Pope Mobile taking the bigger chunk of the news.

9. #DeclareYourWealth – Following the UN Global Compact meeting, Bob Collymore (Safaricom CEO) made us wonder what we spend our lives doing by declaring his earnings and wealth. With a salary of Kes. 10M bob a month, you really stop and pause and wonder what you’re doing with your life. KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara followed suit. We’re still waiting for our government leaders to declare the same…and we’ll probably die waiting for the same.

10. #RohoJuu – Harambee Stars, the national football team suffered humiliation from the footballing bodies and sports ministry after they couldn’t get a flight to Cape Verde on time for their World Cup qualifiers. Despite their tribulations, they did finally make it to the islandic nation and played a few hours after landing. Predictably, they lost the match, but that didn’t stop KOT from rallying behind them using the #RohoJuu hashtag. The biggest news of that night however was Tanzania’s 7 – 0 defeat to Algeria.

11. #Strathmore University was the ugliest incident of 2015, with the university conducting a poorly planned and executed drill that lead to the death of one staff member and many more injuries. Kenyans took to Twitter to tell the truth about what happened, countering the claims of a supposedly well planned drill by the authorities in the institution. 2 weeks later, the students have resumed classes but the investigation has still not closed.

12. #WhatWouldMagufuliDo – after a resounding victory in the Tanzanian elections, President John Pombe Magufuli blazed into office with reforms on spending from the government and it’s institutions. Immediately, KOT took the inspiration and imagined what their life would be if they acted like Magufuli. Let’s just say, Kenyans are seriously hilarious.

There’s many more funny, crazy, sad and great moments that we haven’t captured. What are your memories of 2015 via the KOT lens? Tweet using the hashtag #KOTMoments2015, and let’s relive them!

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Mad about trees, animals, and cupcakes. Ailurophile. Occasionally mad at humans. Consumed by wanderlust. Passionate about Online PR