Just a day after Dennis Itumbi who was alleged to be a digital strategist based at Deputy President William Ruto’s Harambee Annex office was arrested and taken in for questioning by the detectives, new details have emerged on who the blogger was really working for.
According to the officers at Ruto’s office, Itumbi was not an official in their office but rather was the State House Digital Communications Director. The officers said that the strategist even had an office based at the statehouse.
The officer’s statements complicate earlier reports that Dennis Itumbi after being demoted from the state House, was working from Deputy President William Ruto’s Harambee House Annex office as a Digital Secretary/propagandist and a blogger.
Itumbi who has been seen as a valuable player in DP’s Ruto grand plans of being the next President of Kenya come 2022 is said to have continued earning his initial salary estimated to be ksh320,000 even after his demotion by the President.
He was said to be among the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit (PSCU) senior directors who were kicked out of State House for repeatedly embarrassing the presidency and waging a six-year war against their former head Manoah Esipisu.
During his tenure as a Digital Director of Innovations & Diaspora Communication at the State House, Itumbi came under fire when ICC claimed that he had hacked their systems in order to reveal the names of witnesses against the suspects. Itumbi’s role at the state house didn’t, however, last for long as he was demoted in 2018 after some misunderstandings.
According to blogger and freelance journalist Owaahh (Owaahh.com), the President was so annoyed by the senior directors’ war against Esipisu that he banged the table at a meeting sometimes back declaring he had confidence in the man he plucked from the African Development Bank to take charge of his communications upon his ascension to the top job in March 2013.