Uganda

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been the President of Uganda since January 1986. His first Tweet was sent 18 May 2011 apologizing to “guests who were inconvenienced by hooliganism”. The President was referring to a riot during his swearing-in ceremony caused by Kizza Besigye, the leader of the opposition party. The President tweets a few times a month’s typically to promote events but also to share interviews he gave to CNN about Kony and Uganda’s controversial anti-homosexuality legislation: “Why is Uganda attacking homosexuality?” The president often uses the hashtag #UG@50 as Uganda celebrates 50 years of Independence in 2012.

The Twitter account of Uganda’s presidential administration is dedicated to updates of the activities of President Museveni. Most tweets begin with “President Yoweri Museveni…” The accounts has live tweeted his #StateOfTheNation speech and updates followers on the #BudgetDay debate. Not surprisingly the State House Uganda is only following one other account, i.e. the personal account of @KagutaMuseveni.

Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi started his Twitter account in 2009 around the time he was elected Minister for Security in the Ugandan Cabinet. His Twitter stream went silent until August 2011, three months after he became Prime Minister. Since his first tweet when he was “Learning how to tweet” he has done an excellent job of engaging with his followers directly through personal @replies with an average of one tweet a day. In mid-March 2012 he @mentioned key influencers such as @JustinBieber, @LadyGaga, @BillGates @RyanSeacrest, @TaylorSwift13, @Oprah and @Rihanna on Twitter to counter the effects of the Kony viral video to stress that the warlord Joseph Kony was no longer in Uganda and invited them “to visit the Pearl of Africa & see the peace that exists in our wonderful country #KonyisntinUganda”.