Papa Wemba, Lucy Kibaki top searched trend on Google

Kenya’s late First Lady Lucy Kibaki and deceased renowned Congolese musician Papa Wemba were the most popular on Google Search trends in April.

Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba, popularly known as Papa Wemba, emerged top on Google Trends as Kenyans took to the Internet to seek information concerning his death.

Touted as the King of Congolese Rhumba, Papa Wemba, 66, died after collapsing on stage Cote d’Ivoire on April 24.

Former First Lady Lucy Kibaki was the second most trending after news of her death while undergoing treatment in London, United Kingdom. She will be buried in her home in Othaya, Nyeri, on Saturday May 7.

Another tragedy in April was the death of renowned American musician Prince Rogers Nelson, known to many as Prince who took the third trending search following his death at his Paisley Park home and studio in Minneapolis. He died at the age of 57.

Kenya’s Chase Bank came in fourth after rumours of its collapse went viral on social media. The bank which was placed under receivership on April 7 was the third middle-sized lender to go into statutory management nine months after Dubai and Imperial banks.

It was followed by Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore and his spouse Wambui Kamiru as Kenyans went online to gather more information about their nuptial that took place on April 3.

Other trending searches were Beyonce’s sixth album Lemonade and Panama Papers, the largest data leak in history of about 11.5 million documents that detail financial information for more than 214,000 offshore companies associated with the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Other questions that drew attention of Kenyans online where: What is receivership, What is the exchange rate of the dollar in Kenya; What is influenza; What is Panama Papers; What is African philosophy; What is peasant farming, What is disability and What is cold war.

In the ‘How to’ category, the most trending search was, How to be a better man followed by How to make minion quotes, as people went online to find out how to conceptualise the popular images.

Kenyans also searched How to apply for USA scholarship, How to prepare minced meat, How to create email address; How to develop an App; How to soften free range chicken; and How to make money with Google AdSense.