US President Barack Obama took to popular social network Twitter last month to declare his election victory, tweeting a photograph of him hugging his wife Michelle Obama along with the caption “Four more years” to his then 22 million followers.

Obama’s tweet went on to break all Twitter records and reached “the most popular” tweet status with more than 507, 745 retweets. It was also favourited 173,028 times on that day.

Since its introduction some 6 years ago, Twitter has gained popularity among top personalities around the world, including the likes of well-known pop stars such as Lady Gaga and politicians such as Barack Obama.

And African politicians have also started waking up to the power of this social network.

One such politician is Helen Zille, leader of South African opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) and premier of the Western Cape. Zille has over 207,000 Twitter followers.

“Social media facilitates political debate, sharing of ideas and the raising of public awareness about current affairs,” Helen Zille told ITWeb Africa.

“More people in South Africa are using social media platforms to access information, stay on top of current affairs, communicate with peers and get insight into the thinking of public figures,” she added.

Daniel Silke, an independent political analyst in South Africa, says social media platforms such as Twitter are important for politicians to make themselves more accessible to the public.

“I’m all in favour of politicians using social networks; I actually encourage politicians to engage with their public to a much greater degree especially since social media often targets younger voters,” he told ITWeb Africa.

Below is ITWeb Africa’s list of ten top African politicians to watch out for on Twitter. This list comprises political leaders in Africa who have verified Twitter accounts.

While this list does not profess to illustrate the most popular politicians on Twitter, it does shine a light on those who are among the most active:

• Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi Isa El-Ayyat: 704,799 followers. https://twitter.com/MuhammadMorsi (@MuhammadMorsi)
• Helen Zille, leader of South African opposition party the Democratic Alliance: 207,026 followers https://twitter.com/helenzille (@HelenZille)
• Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa: 182,617 followers https://twitter.com/SAPresident (@SAPresident)
• Kenyan presidential candidate Martha Karua: 108,660 followers. https://twitter.com/MarthaKarua (@MarthaKarua)
• Kenyan prime minister, Raila Odinga: 93,227 followers. https://twitter.com/RailaOdinga (@RailaOdinga)
• Kenyan deputy prime minister, Uhuru Kenyatta: 76,196 followers. https://twitter.com/UKenyatta (@UKenyatta)
• Rwandan president Paul Kagame: 82,511 followers.https://twitter.com/PaulKagame (@PaulKagame)
• President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete: 41,481 followers. https://twitter.com/jmkikwete (@jmkikwete)
• January Makamba, deputy minister of communication, science and technology in Tanzania: 21,000 followers https://twitter.com/JMakamba (@JMakamba)
• Ghanaian president John Dramani Mahama: 4,894 followers: https://twitter.com/JDMahama (@JDMahama)