Robert Alai, HSC is a Kenyan

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger and

cyber Cyber may refer to: Computing and the Internet * ''Cyber-'', from cybernetics, a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory and purposive systems Crime and security * Cyber crime, crime that involves computers and networks ** Conventi ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

. Alai, who used to run the now defunct information technology

weblog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

at Techmtaa.com has earned notoriety for his stream of social rants. He has been sued and briefly incarcerated for his highly opinionated political and sometimes personal attacks on politicians, government officials and business leaders.

Notable incidents

On 17 June 2019 Robert Alai was arrested in Nairobi and detained for 14 days for sharing gory photos of police officers who were killed by an IED attack in Wajir. In the wake of the

Westgate shopping mall attack On 21 September 2013, four masked gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall, an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya. There are conflicting reports about the number killed in the attack, since part of the mall collapsed due to a fire that starte ...

in Nairobi where over 65 people were killed, Alai was praised, both by local and international media for his timely and creative use of social media, mainly

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, to provide updates of what was happening at the mall. His accounts were considered as being more accurate than - and sometimes contradicting - the updates provided by the authorities.

Controversy and arrests

In December 2014, Ndegwa Muhoro, the Kenya CID Chief, ordered the arrest of Robert Alai for allegedly sharing President

Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition le ...

's contacts on Twitter. He was consequently charged "with undermining Uhuru". Alai's Twitter handle @robertalai was suspended on 18 December 2014, but was later reinstated.

References

External links

Techmtaa.Com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alai, Robert Kenyan bloggers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people