Crooks follow digital Chief Kariuki on Twitter

Chief Francis Kariuki is Kenya’s face of a ‘digital chief.’ The tech-savvy village chief of Lanet Umoja is known for using Twitter and other social media platforms to facilitate his functions.

His Twitter account is so popular that, he says, even thieves in his village follow him. He has 55,500 followers since 2011. One night, his phone rang at 4am and the caller alerted him that thieves were invading a school teacher’s house. He tweeted the message and within minutes, villagers had gathered outside the house, frightening the thugs away.

“My wife and I were terrified,” said teacher Michael Kimotho, “but the alarm raised by the chief helped.”

On a different occasion, the ‘tweeting chief’ saved the lives of hundreds of children who had been attacked by bees in their school when he tweeted about it and pleaded with the locals to rush to the school with blankets to save the school children. The response was swift, but unfortunately one child died, even though hundreds more were saved.

“Twitter has helped save time and money. I no longer have to write letters or print posters which take time to distribute and are expensive,” Kariuki, 49, told the press sometimes back.