TikTok taking Kenyans by storm, emerges sixth most popular app

If you are reading this, then you survived the tough January penilessness. A toffee for your efforts. You are a champ.

Kenyans have over the years corrupted January to Njaanuary. Associating the first month of the year with emptiness: empty pockets, bellies and beer mugs.

Of course, this is as a result of the December excesses; lavish spendings and drinking sprees and Christmas festivities that deplete the pockets faster than a corrupt official.

Kenyans however, decided not to let this time of the year get their spirits down.

They turned to social media platform-TikTok- to while the Njaanuary blues away, a slow day at time.

A 2020 Digital Trends report revealed that out of every 11 minutes spent on a mobile phone, 10 minutes are spent in an app.

The new kid on the block, Tiktok boasted of a super impressive 800 million monthly active users, ranking it 6th among the most popular apps in the world.

A bunch of users used the platform to poke fun at January, turning their miseries into entertainment and in retrospect, helping others survive the month.

Below we highlight a few of those familiar Njaanuary moments:

December vs January vibes

What a contrast December was when money was flowing from January when only God knows why we have to endure intense hardships. Everything is different from our dressing styles to the genre of music we are listening to.

@marynene254#NjaanuaryBlues♬ original sound – marynene254

On New Year’s Eve some opted for positivity, telling their minds to imagine that the long and tough month of January had already passed, and pretended that they were already in February (a month with 28 days), instead of January which often feels like it has 70 days.

@scholarwena😂😂😂 January is over!!! #HappyNewMonthInadvance #tiktokkenya♬ Goodbye – Jason DeRulo,David Guetta,Nicki Minaj

And some sisters decided to go off the super expensive nitty-gritty of make-up preferring to instead, restore their faces to default settings. Haha!

@shishdavisI used all my make up to slay for the holidays and can’t afford to buy more this January #tiktok_kenya #foryoupage #foryou #happynewyear #featureame♬ Crying Child – Popoy Cervanda

The noise that electricity meter boxes make just after New Year can be mistaken for an unending post-Christmas Carol. Next time you miss the January electricity payment, consider setting your meter box to vibrate or silent mode with your provider as it alerts all of your neighbours that the electricity has been disconnected.

@njerimwangi254somewhere in kenya… #njaanuary #januaryvibes #xyzbca #tiktok_kenya♬ original sound – njerimwangi254

It’s back to reality for everyone. Students must painfully bid farewell to their loved ones and home comforts to embark on their  journey in search of knowledge.

@am_papadopulos#backtoschool #tiktoktanzania #tiktokkenya #tiktokuganda call_me_turner trinmy porcatello♬ original sound – urcheey

With the hope for a better year, we all tend to make annual resolutions that most of us forget as soon as January comes to an end.

@markmwas😂😂you only remember the new years resolutions on January then you forgot about them #tiktokenya #newyear #tiktok #foryoupage♬ The Months of the Year – The Kiboomers

TikTok boast of being the leading destination for short-form mobile video with global offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo