Mark Zuckerberg and Mama Oliech [Photo: Courtesy]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived in 2016 in a visit that caught many in Nairobi's tech and business communities by surprise.

Two days to his arrival, Facebook's communications team in South Africa sent emails informing journalists that Ime Archibong, Facebook's director of global product partnerships, would be in town for a brief visit.

 However, the details of the visit were scanty and images of Mark Zuckerberg in Lagos on his first ever African tour prompted mild self-deprecation comments among Kenya's Twitter community.

"Kenya is losing its place as an ICT hub and the Nigerians are taking over," tweeted one user. "Very sad for Kenya there was a time we were the first stop," tweeted another.

"This is a lesson that we need to get our house in order," stated yet another.

It was thus a pleasant surprise when images of Mark Zuckerberg eating fish at Mama Oliech's Restaurant in Nairobi's Hurlingham surfaced on social media that Thursday afternoon and immediately went viral.

Mr Zuckerberg had arrived in the country at 11:25pm on Wednesday aboard his private jet. Three helicopters then ferried him and his party of 15 to Wilson Airport from where he headed for an undisclosed hotel to spend the rest of the night.

Zuckerberg is worth more than $71 billion and is listed by Forbes as the fifth richest man in the world.

Mark Zuckerberg at Mama Oliech Restaurant [Photo: Courtesy]
Mark Zuckerberg at Mama Oliech's Restaurant [Photo: Courtesy]
Mark Zuckerberg at Mama Oliech's Restaurant [Photo: Courtesy]