Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has responded to criticism after the country sent flowers to the UK's National Health Service workers.

The president said the move was strategic as the UK is a huge market for Kenya's flowers.

"They say friends remember each other during trouble," he added.

President Kenyatta said there was life after coronavirus and when a British health worker goes to buy flowers they will want those from Kenya as it was the country that recognised their efforts during pandemic.

Some Kenyans online had accused the government of "misplaced priorities" for sending the UK flowers during the pandemic.

"Our president sent flowers to UK, while in his own country there no beds for this poor Kenyan in quarantine," Dr Mutwiri Wilson tweeted.

"Flowers to European nurses as Kenyan nurses threaten to strike due to lack of PPE," Yawa Jomoko wrote.

"The levels of hypocrisy in this country! Look at this now. Oh wait, did the president send flowers to the United Kingdom? Yet the electorate boil stones for food?" Edwin Shisanya wrote.