Itumbi reviews government presence on social media

NAIROBI, KENYA: The government on Tuesday announced plans to use social media in engaging the public to its daily operations.

In an interview during the World Social media day, the Director of Digital Communication in the office of the President Dennis Itumbi acknowledged that the government has not fared well in interacting with citizen through various social media channels.

Currently only 28 per cent of government ministries are on facebook, 14 per cent on twitter and 1 per cent on Instagram.

“June 30 being a world social media day the government pledges to use the various social media platforms to foster unity and diversity,” he said.

“We have come up with several measures aimed at solving this lack of interactivity, such as GOK interact through #GOKinterract which gives an opportunity for the citizens to have a first-hand questions and answers session with top government officials. So far the Deputy President has been interviewed among other cabinet secretaries,” he added.

He said the government will also be launching its first official website manned by experienced editors and blogger. This will help in mitigating communication between the public and the government. The free wifi program that was first launched in Nakuru is a success story and the government is in negotiation with three other counties.

In enhancing accountability by public officers social media has played a huge role given that the public have been able to forward graft cases to the government and EACC, so far 42 cases have been received and five have passed the threshold.

To cub hate speech that is always spewed through social media office of the Director of Digital Communication in the Office of the President has drafted a government social media policy that will bring about personal accountability among social media users in Kenya.

The cost of data bundles still cuts out so many Kenyans out on social media, to address this the Jubilee administration is encouraging innovation and also asking and accepting ideas from the public on the best way to help bring down the cost of data. The free wifi program also aims at providing free internet to the public.