Uganda’s top comedienne Anne Kansiime has lost millions after her Instagram account was hacked.
According to Kansime, “My Instagram handle was @Kansiime256, I had over 250,000 followers. One moment I got a phone call from a friend asking what’s wrong with my account. I get my phone, went to the account and it is showing me zero followers, I am following zero people and even the profile picture is gone. It like they put it back to factory setting” she said.
She further added saying, “I couldn’t believe I had zero followers on social media. Right now social media is a big deal when you want to advertise, it’s a big deal when you talking to advertisers for me to lose something like that. I am hurt.”
This came hours after hackers took over Zari Hassans account.
In the past two days, Zari’s Instagram account that has 4.2 million followers has been in the hands of the hackers who are demanding a cool 4,000 dollars (Sh400,000) in form of bit coins before handing it back.
But with a stubborn Zari not yielding to the demands, the hackers have been causing havoc including posting porn as well Diamond’s ex Hamisa Mobetto.
For Kansiime, the hack has seen her lose about a quarter a million followers. She took the rant about the loss on YouTube.
However, unlike Zari who is working hard to have her account back, Kansiime has decided to open a new account and is now urging her followers to ditch the hacked one and follower the new one.
For Kansiime, the hack has seen her lose about a quarter a million followers. She took the rant about the loss on YouTube.
Zari however has assured her followers that her daughters account is well in.
Kansiime began in 2007, while still an undergraduate at Makerere University, she began to participate in drama skits acted by the theatre group Theatre Factory, who played at the Uganda National Theatre in Kampala’s central business district.
When Theatre Factory disintegrated, she joined Theatre Fun, that replaced it. The group plays every Thursday evening. The best skits were broadcast on NTV Uganda in the Barbed Wire TV show that later became U-Turn. She partnered with Brian Mulondo as a Taxi interview conductor in the MiniBuzz series and provided comic video dramatizations of topical issues that random passengers discussed.
According to recorded interviews that she gave in 2014, Anne began posting some of her sketch comedy skits on YouTube.
She received positive feedback and that encouraged her to post more videos. Her screen breakthrough came when Citizen TV from neighboring Kenya offered her a slot to produce, star and present a comedy show once a week. That is how she came up with the Don’t Mess With Kansiime comedy show.
As of November 2014, her YouTube channel had amassed more than 15 million views. Her YouTube videos receive thousands of views and she has appeared on BBC Focus on Africa. She has played to packed houses in Blantyre, Gaborone, Kigali, Kuala Lumpur, Lagos, Lilongwe, London, Lusaka and Harare.