UhuRuto lose thousands of followers as Twitter cracks down on fake accounts

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were among hundreds of Kenyan celebrities who suffered heavily following Twitter's crackdown on fake account, on Friday morning.

Uhuru who boasts of over three million followers, lost over 16,000 followers while Ruto who stands at 1.9 million followers lost a total of 7,000 accounts.

According to  Twitter warned it's users to expect a drop in numbers of followers as it begins removing locked accounts.

Locked accounts are restricted from posting by the social media site when it detects activity such as tweeting a large volume of unsolicited replies or mentions, and must be verified by owners before they can be unlocked.

The firm said the removal of locked accounts – believed to number in the millions – is part of effort to “improve the health” of conversation on the platform by deleting suspicious and inactive accounts.

Twitter said the accounts differ from spam or bots – another area where the platform is clamping down – because locked accounts are predominately created by real people, but Twitter is no longer able to confirm they are still in control of the account.

Other high profiling Kenyans who suffered the blow include BBC presenter, Larry Madowo who stands at a little over 1.5 million followers after losing 7,700 accounts.

KTN news anchor, Jeff Koinange also so a huge drift in his follower count after 11,000 accounts were deleted. He now stands at 1.2 Million followers, making him one of the most followed Kenyans.

While many cursed and 'moaned'Rt. honorable Raila Odinga, however, saw a miraculous increase in his follower count with approximately 200 people following the former premier.

His following now stands at 1.9 Million.

Check the statistics below.

Uhuru Kenyatta - Followers as of July 12 - 3,234,935. Today - 3,218,864

William Ruto - Followers as of July 12 - 1,975,437. Today - 1,968,226

Raila Odinga - Followers as of July 12 - 1,923,245. Today - 1,923,428 (increased)

Larry Madowo - Followers as of July 12 - 1,516,052. Today - 1,508,286

Jeff Koinange - Followers as of July 12 - 1,300,047. Today - 1,288,932