Jubilee government’s Twitter bloopers of all time
1. Kenyans are back home, June 26, 2013
Foreign Affairs Secretary Amina Mohamed (@AMB_A_Mohammed) tweeted: Greetings, Good news for Kenya as all the Kenyans held up in Nigeria are on their way back home. Cc @ntvkenya @KTNKenya @citizentvkenya.
The minister was “confirming” an end to the issue of 11 Kenyans detained in Lagos, Nigeria after deporting Anthony Chinedu.
Then government spokesman Muthui Kariuki echoed Ms Mohammed’s sentiments at a press conference.
However, when the 11 officials went to Lagos airport, they were turned back as they had not yet been cleared.
Ms Mohammed ate a humble pie in a follow up tweet: “We are still doing the paperwork for the plane and very soon it will be sorted out. We shall have something to tell you within 24 hours.”
Her original tweet is available on Twitter.
2. Uhuru Kenyatta’s F1 selfies, November 26, 2014
President Uhuru Kenyatta had just returned from a tour of Abu Dhabi during which tens of Kenyans had been massacred in a bus attack in Mandera by Al Shabaab.
The digital arm of his communication unit tweeted his off-the-cuff remarks @PSCU_Digital: “President Kenyatta, ‘I have been out of the country for a few days as you have seen from the selfies in newspapers’.”
The faux pas was deleted and replaced with: “As you are aware, I have been away for a few days, as you have seen in the in the newspapers.”
Many Kenyans interpreted the tweet as arrogance on the part of the president, who already faced a backlash for remaining silent five days after the devastating Mandera terrorist attack.
In another tweet, PSCU tweeted the president using a slur that is loved by Al Shabaab. PSCU: President Kenyatta, ‘juzi nilikuwa Kapendo na wakasema hatukujua ni polisi tulidhani ni Turkana…same language ya kusema Kafiri’. Kafir (infidel), is a derogatory slur commonly used by Al-Shabaab to refer to Christians.
3. Kimaiyo’s pastries, September 23, 2013
This was the mother of all tweet gaffes. After Al Shabaab terrorists took over Westgate Mall on September 21, 2013, there was a stand-off as security personnel tried to retake the mall.
So when the recce company, an elite police squad, arrived then Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo (@IGkimaiyo) sent out a tweet: “Taken control of all the floors. We’re not here to feed the attackers with pastries but to finish and punish them. IG.”
“We had our heads in our hands when we saw the Kimaiyo tweet,” a staffer in President Uhuru Kenyatta office told the Guardian.
“What was he thinking?” Mr Kimaiyo’s tweet was later removed but is still available from the retweets.