Nairobi News

Google has released the top trending searches for the month of July 2018 in Kenya, with the Fifa World Cup dominating the first half of the month.

According to Google, apart from the World Cup which was held in various venues in Russia between June 14-July 15, the other top trending searches among Kenyans were the Lunar eclipse and the likeable Croatia president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

1. World Cup – Kenyans especially tracked the quarterfinals, semifinals and the big final match between France and Croatia on Sunday, July 15.

2. Lunar eclipse – The second most searched item was the lunar eclipse, which took place on July 27 July and was the longest total lunar eclipse in the century, lasting about one hour and forty-three minutes.

3. Croatia president – Croatia president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović who rose to global popularity during the World Cup was the third most searched. The Croatian leader flew to Russia to cheer her national team all the way to the finals with her beauty, affectionate smile and selfless support for her national team.

4. Sexiest woman alive – Kenyans also went online to search for the sexiest woman alive, making this the fourth most searched item in July.

5. Ruth Kamande – The fifth top Kenyan search was Ruth Kamande who was sentenced to death after the High Court ruled that she deliberately stabbed her boyfriend to death in 2015. Amnesty International condemned her death sentence terming it as an ‘inhumane and outdated form of punishment’.

6. Wimbledon – The 2018 Wimbledon Championship occupied the sixth position among the top searches. The Grand Slam tennis tournament took place at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The main tournament began on Monday 2 July 2018 and finished on Sunday 15 July 2018.

In the women’s finals, Angelique Kerber defeated Serena Williams in the final for her first Wimbledon title while Novak Djokovic took down Kevin Anderson in straight sets for his fourth Wimbledon title and 13th Grand Slam victory.

7. Pony videos 2018 – Seventh on the list was pony videos 2018.

8. My Sweet Curse – A new telenovela that debuted July 12 on Citizen TV was the eighth most searched.

9. Alex Mwakideu – The popular radio journalist who recently quit Standard Group’s Radio Maisha to join Media Max’s Milele FM took the ninth most searched item by Kenya.

10. Thailand cave rescue – Closing the list of top 10 Kenyan trending searches in July was the Thailand cave rescue which captured the world’s attention after 12 boys all members of one football team and their coach were trapped for two weeks in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the Thai province of Chiang Rai. Their rescue effort involved more than 10,000 people, including over 100 divers, representatives from about 100 governmental agencies, and required 10 police helicopters, seven police ambulances, more than 700 diving cylinders, and the pumping of more than a billion litres of water out of the caves.

In the trending How to category, the top trending search was “How to check KPLC bill” while “How to withdraw from SportPesa” came second. The third search item was “How to buy tokens” referring to the Kenya Power electricity tokens utilised by the company’s prepaid customers.

The fourth trending search item in this category was “How to pray” while cuisine related searches “How to cook spaghetti” and “How to cook fish” took fifth and sixth positions respectively. “How to remove black spots on face” was the seventh most searched query in this category.

Google Search Trends is a publicly available tool that indicates search patterns over a period of time and shows the clusters of searches that made it to the weekly trending searches in the country.