Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Twitter, Facebook Deactivated, Chief Of Staff Explains Why

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta's Twitter and Facebook accounts were deleted Friday, minutes after he posted his views on corruption.

Kenyatta’s followers on social media were the first ones to point out that searching for the Twitter handle “@UKenyatta” directed users to a blue screen, which displayed the message, "Sorry, that page doesn’t exist! You can search Twitter using the search box below or return to the homepage.” His Facebook account also met with a similar fate, as the message “Sorry this content isn’t available at the moment” was displayed every time one tried to access it.

Beyond that, several other social media profiles that have been posting on behalf of the president were also suspended.

The unexplained disappearance of his social media accounts came minutes after Kenyatta took to Twitter and delivered a scathing reply to those who criticized the government’s crackdown on corruption and the ongoing investigations by the country's Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

“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. “I also assured Kenyans in the diaspora that the crackdown on graft will continue and that every effort will be made to bring back integrity to the public service. Kenya has great potential but there is need to change practices that hinder our country from achieving progress.”

As the president’s supporters looked for some sort of an explanation regarding the sudden disappearance of his social media presence, Kenyatta's Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita announced on his own Twitter page that there were a number of "unauthorized" individuals with access to the president's social media accounts and they had temporarily deactivated the accounts to bring that under control.

"On account of unauthorized 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," Waita tweeted.

According to local news channel the Star, such a cleanup process had been initiated by the Kenyan government earlier as well. In July, social media accounts related to Presidential Strategic Communication Unit were deactivated. At that time too, Waita announced there would be only four official accounts that will be maintained by the government from then on – @StateHouseKenya, @UKenyatta, @FirstLadyKenya and @KanzeDena. The accounts @PresidentKE and @PSCU_Digital unit were shut down.

"All official communication originating from the President’s Strategic Communications Unit will strictly be communicated through the listed channels," Waita said at the time. "Operational correspondence by PSCU staff to media outlets will be done through officially assigned 'president.go.ke' email addresses."

The cleanup processes are done in order to save the State House from any liability or responsibility for inaccuracies arising from unofficial channels.