Kenya Twitter Account Of Chief Francis Kariuki Stops Crime, Finds Lost Sheep

LANET UMOJA, Kenya (AP) — When the chief in a western Kenyan village received an urgent call that thugs were invading a school teacher's home, he sent a message on Twitter. Within minutes residents in this village of stone houses gathered outside the home, and the thugs fled.

The tweet from Chief Francis Kariuki was only his latest attempt to improve village life by using the micro-blogging site Twitter. Kariuki regularly sends out tweets about missing children and farm animals, showing that the power of social media has reached even into a dusty African village.

He says he recently tweeted about a lost brown and white sheep, and the animal was soon recovered.

A recent report said that Twitter is enjoying big growth across Africa. It said South Africans use Twitter the most, but Kenya is second.

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In this photo taken Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, Chief Francis Kariuki reads a tweet on his mobile phone at his office in the village of Lanet Umoja, near Nakuru, in the Rift Valley of Kenya. (AP) 

From www.huffingtonpost.com