BY JACKAL NEWS TEAM
President Uhuru Kenyatta has defended the appointment of Dennis Itumbi as the head of the directorate of Digital, New Media and Diaspora in his revamped communication unit, the first high-level response to ex-prime minister Raila Odinga’s blistering attack on the appointment. In a brief statement, the Presidential Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU), invited Odinga to study Kenyatta’s new strategy aimed at empowering Kenyans who live in the Diaspora.
In an interview with the Daily Nation in the United States, Odinga rubbished Itumbi’s appointment as saying it is “a clear indication that the government was not treating the diaspora with the seriousness it deserved.”
On Monday, Jackal News threw its weight behind Itumbi, a self-made man who defined his personality as a defender of the hapless in a nation blighted by pretenders and a wide range of small-time crooks, some of whom are yet to recover from the devastating blow President Kenyatta dealt on Odinga, the doyenne of opposition politics who lost his second attempt to settle in the house on the hill, popularly known as State House, one of the most coveted address in Kenya, whose magnetic power touched off incendiary blood-letting after the 2007, when Odinga rejected the out of the poll that retained retired president Mwai Kibaki, in office for the second and final term.
Although Odinga survived the near-fatal blow, he has never fully accepted the outcome, transforming him into a a globe-trotter whose agenda is proclaim is phantom victory, while rubbishing the impartiality of the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission, a body he helped create while sharing power with Kibaki, the brilliant but often sleepy economist, who handed over power to Kenyatta at a ceremony Odinga and his CORD acolytes boycotted.
Analysts have noted, rather ruefully, that Odinga’s shoddy campaign planning and disillusions that he had a God-given right to succeed Kibaki, conspired to frustrate his life-long ambitions. It’s not clear whether he will throw his hat into the race in 2017/18 polls, when Kenyatta will be seeking his second and final term.
Below is the PSCU Statement:
Our attention has been drawn to a statement appearing on Page 9 of the July 29 Daily Nation where former Prime Minister Raila Odinga accused the Jubilee government of not being serious about the Diaspora and its challenges. We refute that claim. We assert that Government is fully committed to involving the Diaspora in nation-building. As testimony of that commitment, there is not only a stand-alone Ministry of Foreign Affairs but Kenya also has embassies in 53 countries across the world catering for Kenyans abroad in addition to global affairs.
The Government has mainstreamed issues of the Diaspora across all the 18 ministries in its new structure, the same way it has with issues of the youth, women and children. The Diaspora interests are not addressed by a single directorate as the former Prime Minister would want to mislead Kenyans. It is worth noting that as a result of Government’s policy of involving the Diaspora in its affairs, many Kenyans are returning home to take up positions in Government and elsewhere after staying abroad for many years. This reverse of brain-drain is an indicator that issues of the Diaspora are accorded the importance they deserve by Government.
We would like to inform the former Prime Minister that the Digital, New Media and Diaspora directorate within the Presidential Strategic Communication Unity (PSCU) headed by Dennis Itumbi is an important cog in maintaining communication with Kenyans abroad and engaging with the issues that affect them. That said, that directorate is a small part of the Government’s bigger structure that is involved in matters related to the Diaspora. The former Prime Minister is invited to better understand the Jubilee Government agenda, including on Diaspora matters, so that he does not speak out of tune.
Although Odinga reserves the right to criticize Kenyatta’s appointments, training this merciless “youth-scaring” radar on Itumbi, who has made his maiden entry into the civil service, did not bore well among the youth who have been edged to the periphery by the previous governments.
And by dismissing him a “character” highlighted the ex-prime minister disdain for the trained journalist, who on several occasions defended Odinga’s right to propagate his views. Instead, many social media users, suggested Odinga would have used his granary of knowledge to guide the young man as he navigates the treacherous and often insidious waters in the civil service sea.
While Itumbi is unlikely to hold any grudge against Odinga, the attack was an apparently red flag on how politics throttles the civil service, a stoical band of state employees who burn calories to keep the government afloat, amid a cacophony of poor pay and lack of career development.
This is the area that Itumbi and other young men and women aspired to join as they campaigned for Kenyatta in a foul-tempered face-off that trained the biased eyes of the West in Kenya, a country whose strategic importance to international geopolitics and economics is stuff for fertile Phd brains.
While Odinga will remain a remarkable juggernaut in politics, his end-game inevitably borders on ignominy as the man who described himself as the political enigma increasingly descends into a cesspool of tasteless tantrums and puerile antics in an annoyingly anger-driven rage to remain relevant, while his restless enemies pull the carpet under his fit and the media shifts more fascinating benefactors.
Alternatively, elders have suggested the his friendly pals in the Westen capitals to mollify him with a figure head UN appointment, thereby paving the way for his unnoticed exit from a political climate that neither rewards hard-work nor recognizes seniority.
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