Here Is How Kenyans On Twitter Are Responding To CNN's Coverage Of Obama's First Presidential Visit To Kenya

Kenyans on Twitter are using the hashtag #SomeoneTellCNN in response to CNN calling Kenya a "hotbed of terror" ahead of Obama's Nairobi trip

Yatta Zoker
Here Is How Kenyans On Twitter Are Responding To CNN's Coverage Of Obama's First Presidential Visit To Kenya

After a few weeks of anticipation, President Barack Obama is headed to Kenya this week for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi. The trip marks the President's first time visiting his father's country of origin since coming into office.

CNN set off a national conversation amongst Kenyans on Twitter (#KOT) today when they referred to the country as a "hotbed of terror." "President Barack Obama is not just heading to his father's homeland, but to a hotbed of terror," a CNN web report read (that opening line has since been edited to say "a region that's a hotbed of terror"). The report went on to quote Rand Corporation security analyst Seth Jones, who suggested that although an Al-Shabaab attack on the President himself was unlikely, the group would look for more vulnerable "soft targets." Said Jones, "What's most likely is not an attack against a U.S. government official like the President, but an attack that happens while the President is there."

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Using the hashtag #SomeoneTellCNN, Kenyans have been using their 120 characters to mobilize against the network. In addition to the wave of tweets from around #KOT, Kenya's Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery referred to the broadcast as a "sustained campaign" to portray Kenya in bad light, according to Daily Nation. “This announcement is based on lies. It demonstrates heightened irresponsibility by the media network and smacks of arrogance," he told journalists at Harambee House in Nairobi.

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