Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has not spoken to reporters for two days, since being criticised for treating the deadly terrorist attack on a Nairobi hotel as a joke.
The prime minister and the foreign minister, meanwhile, have offered their condolences to the victims and their families.
Gen Prawit chaired a meeting at Government House on Friday. He smiled, silently accepted reporters' greetings but did not talk to them, either before or after the meeting.
Officials at the government spokesman's office asked reporters not to interview Gen Prawit. At Government House, police blocked reporters from approaching him.
Gen Prawit has kept his silence after being strongly criticised for his remarks on Wednesday in response to reporters' questions about the the terrorist attack at the DusitD2 Hotel in the capital of Kenya on Tuesday.
He said it was "okay" that no Thais died in the attack on the resort and spa, not "good enough" as some media reported, and when a reporter asked why a Thai-managed hotel was the target, he jokingly attributed it to its delicious food.
His military close aide said on Friday that Gen Prawit had intended the remark only as an aside with the reporters.
On Thursday Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai extended their condolences to Kenya.
Men armed with guns and explosives burst into the DusitD2 hotel complex in Nairobi on Tuesday, killing 21 people and injuring others in an attack that lasted hours and ended on Wednesday morning.
Somali Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was a response to US President Donald Trump's 2017 decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
