President William Ruto's cabinet is poised to spend millions to keep Twitter's blue badge after the firm, on Monday, April 3, announced that it would withdraw the verification of accounts that did not pay a monthly subscription.
Priding itself as a digital government, social media is one of the avenues the Ruto administration uses to relay information to the public through several verified accounts.
However, unlike the $8 charged on personal accounts, Twitter announced that government organisations would pay USD1,000 (Ksh132,950) monthly for verification.
Kenyans.co.ke established that if the Ruto-led government chooses to keep the blue badge of its executive, it will have to part with amounts to the tune of Ksh116 million annually.
When Ruto nominated Chief Administrative Secretaries (CASs) on March 16, he appointed them to 24 state offices including 22 Ministries, the Office of the Deputy President, and the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary.
While all ministries are verified on Twitter, the is no official account of the Office of the Deputy President while that of the Office of the Prime CS account is not verified.
In their place in the final tally, the official Government Spokesperson handle was factored in. The 24 main accounts will be charged USD24,000 (Ksh3.19 million) monthly, and USD288,000 Ksh38.2 million annually.
The ministries have a total of 49 state departments headed by the CASs. These will pay a total of USD588,000 dollars (Ksh78.1 million) annually.
Notably, the Ksh116 million does not take into account handles managed by individual government officials who occupy the offices, who are charged USD50 (Ksh6,645) per month for each extra handle.
The government can, however, opt to drop the badge just like the White House in America. This would mean extra vigilance on social media following the spate of fake accounts of top-ranking government officials.
It is still unclear whether the government will opt to have its staffers keep blue badges.
State agencies on numerous occasions, came out to clarify fake posts purporting to have communication such as job alerts or tender advertisements.
Con artists have also used fake accounts to swindle money from Kenyans.
