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Why is Parliament not on TikTok? John Kiarie asks

By Freya Wanjiku February 3rd, 2023 2 min read

The Member of Parliament for Dagoretti South Constituency, John Kiarie, has questioned his fellow parliamentarians on why they are not active on social media platforms.

The comedian-turned-politician has also sought to know why parliament is not on TikTok, while urging his fellow lawmakers to move with the times.

While commenting on an eight-hour-long video on social media of a parliamentary session, Mr Kiarie said that if parliament had a proactive social media team, the video would have been truncated to short video clips.

“They would have edited very small palatable size bits pieces of information that would be on your Twitter and Facebook,” the MP said.

Also read: Running on Empty: Inside the election campaign of MP Peter Salasya

He also challenged fellow MPs to borrow a leaf from the Mumias East MP Peter Salasya, Kiarie, who he said has amassed a huge following on social media, thanks to his short video clips.

“He (Salasya) has a following bigger than Bunge and probably bigger than any other member in this room. He is simply offering content that every Kenyan is willing to take. And in that content, he is able to sneak in his development agenda, work he is doing in Bunge and is effectively communicating to the audience.”

In response to the acknowledgment, Salasya tweeted “Hehe Hon @KiarieJohn aki wewe hapa mhesh.”

Also read: Is Peter Salasya the most loved MP in Kenya?

Also read: Roho chafu! Mumias East MP Peter Salasya opens up on jealously, competition among politicians – VIDEO

Released in 2016 and launched in 2017, TikTok hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes

TikTok tends to appeal to younger users, as 41 per cent of its users are between the ages of 16 and 24.

Among these TikTok users, 90 per cent say they use the app daily. As of the first quarter of 2022, there were over 100 million monthly active users. The average user, daily, was spending 1 hour and 25 minutes on the app and opening TikTok 17 times.

Also read: Peter Salasya: I am living my prophesy