Ruto advised to quit social media

By Peter Ochieng

President William Ruto has been advised to quit social media, in order to avoid distractions that come with online trolls.

Ruto is being reffered to as 'Zakayo the tax collector' and 'Mtukufu Lies' on social media platforms, in what political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi says may distract him from delivering his mandate to the people of Kenya.

He wants him to quit social media, the same way his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta did.

"Dear Ruto: Stories like Mtukukufu Lies are what made Uhuru Kenyatta quit social media. Dealing with KoT (Kenyans on Twitter) is like herding cats. Hectic. And it will only get worse. Your best bet is to embrace vagueness like Kibaki. A clear-headed president is always a target for ridicule," Ngunyi wrote in a tweet.

Kenyatta deactivated his social media platforms in March, 2019.

With over 3.6 million followers on Twitter, he was the most followed African leader on the platform at the time.

It was not clearly stated at the time why he bolted out of social media, but he later admitted that trolls had everything to do with it.

"I meet people personally and we engage, I don't fancy social media," he said in November, 2020.

"Si mnaona hata Twitter niliondoka huko kwa sababu niliona hio kitu ni bure na ni matusi tu ndio imejaa huko, hakuna kitu inaendelea (You see I even left Twitter because I realised that thing is only used to propagate abuses, and nothing else goes on there."

"I'd rather get some sleep after chatting with my wife. I wake up the following day, do my work and the world continues peacefully," he added.

With 5.9 million followers on Twitter and another 2.4 million on Facebook, President Ruto is among the most followed leaders in Africa.