Uhuru tells ‘haters’ on Twitter to give constructive criticism

And just like a tech savvy leader would, he whipped out his camera phone on Wednesday night to record a performance by Kenyan children in Washington DC. Before long, he too was dancing much to the amusement of his audience/PSCU

And just like a tech savvy leader would, he whipped out his camera phone on Wednesday night to record a performance by Kenyan children in Washington DC. Before long, he too was dancing much to the amusement of his audience.

And when it was time for his speech, he made it clear that his technological knowhow extended to the Facebook wall and Twitter time line. “You know sometimes I look at my page… be it Facebook or Twitter account or whatever and see some of the comments people make, haters and likers and all this,” he said in his address to Kenyans in Washington DC.

He was however not all together happy with what he read there: “Some of the comments degenerate into something that makes you wonder why did we go to this digital age. It was better when we just had a newspaper to read.”

A statement that is bound to cause a few gags on Twitter given he was famously quoted for saying, “newspapers are for wrapping meat once their date of publication expires.”

Still, he said, he was not averse to criticism. He would prefer though, that it was constructive. “When you see the way people interact, wewe unahate kwa sababu wewe ni kabila hii, let us go out there with a positive message even if it is criticism,” he underscored.

And to his haters: “Whether you like it or not, choices are there. That’s why we’re a democracy. If I irritate you so much, for these five years make sure you campaign so that I go home and if you succeed in getting me out, are you going to hate the next one also? Will we be able to develop that way?” he posed.

Kenyans on Twitter (KoT) are famous for their no-holds-barred criticism and were especially vicious to @UKenyatta following the Thika road twin bus blasts demanding that #SomeonetellUhuruKenyatta that more needed to be done to avert future terror attacks (much less diplomatically).

About The Author

OLIVE BURROWS

With a decade of storytelling under her belt, Olive Burrows has been with Capital FM for the last four years and perhaps most notably interviewed US President Barack Obama. Committed to asking the hard questions and telling the story in the most engaging way possible, she has also interviewed Melinda Gates, a UK Minister and severally had the opportunity to sit across from President Uhuru Kenyatta and address the pressing issues of the day. Other notables she has had occasion to seek answers from are UN Secretary General António Guterres and John Kerry in his time as US Secretary of State.

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