Government’s Digital Secretary Dennis Itumbi has finally addressed social media rumours that he was kicked out of his office at State House by the President, forcing him to take refuge at Deputy President William Ruto’s Harambee Avenue office.
Speaking on NTV’s Press Pass segment, Itumbi rubbished claims that alongside Munyori Buku, Dennis Nzioka, and Joyce Mureithi, he was demoted from State House, using the claims as an example of the show’s topic of discussion, fake news.
Itumbi accused the media fraternity of subjective reporting, complaining that no one made an effort to confirm the truth of the claims from the allegedly demoted officers. Instead, the media rushed to publish the untrue claims.
“We sit and work for the Presidency at State House,” Itumbi asserted, threatening to sue media houses for false reporting.
“By tomorrow, the people at the Standard and the Nation will have letters from my lawyers asking them to go to court and defend their position on that particular claim because it is an outright lie,” Itumbi said.
The agitated journalist faulted the two media houses for laxity in reporting, listing individuals who could have been consulted for clarification of the claims including State House Spokesperson Kanze Dean, the Public Service Commission, State House Comptroller or even himself.
Itumbi further termed the assumption that he speaks for Ruto as wrongly derived, saying the Deputy President is fit enough to speak for himself and if need be, he has officials such as David Mugonyi for that purpose.
“My work is to ensure that the Twitter handles for the entire government are working, ” a dodgy Itumbi said.
Suspicion that Itumbi had fallen out with the President emerged when Netizens noticed that the former blogger had stopped addressing general government issues and had instead started addressing only issues pertaining to the Deputy President.
“These parties are more concerned about getting third parties to speak for someone, as opposed to getting to the person,” he said.