Hours before the deactivation, he had tweeted a warning on corruption, stating that his allies found culpable in allegations of corruption would not be spared.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has deactivated his social media accounts.
Hours before the deactivation, he had tweeted a warning on corruption, stating that his allies found culpable in allegations of corruption would not be spared.
"If you are corrupt we will fight you. You can be my brother or my sister or my closest political ally, but if you are corrupt we will fight you,” Kenyatta had tweeted.
According to Daily Nation, William Ruto, Kenyatta’s deputy, had claimed that the ongoing war on corruption was targeted at him and his ambition to become President in 2022. As such, there were speculations that the administrator of the social media accounts may have tweeted the said message to pitch Kenyatta against Ruto.
Kenyatta's Twitter and Facebook accounts were taken down. He had 3.62 million followers on Twitter, with 12,300 tweets.
After speculations that Twitter was taking action against the President following his tweet on corruption, Nzioka Waita, his Chief Of Staff, confirmed that the accounts had been deactivated.
Confirming the deactivation, Waita said: “On account of unauthorised access to the official social media handles of H.E the President of the Republic of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, all official social media handles for the President have been temporarily suspended to allow for the necessary remedial measures to be undertaken.”
In July 2018, the social media accounts of the President, State House and office were taken down.
During that incident, Waita had said: “In this regard and with immediate effect, the only official digital media channels that will convey information for and on behalf of the President, Her Excellency the First Lady and State House are as detailed below: Twitter: @StateHouseKenya, @UKenyatta, @FirstLadyKenya @KanzeDena; Facebook: State House Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, @Office of the First Lady Kenya.”