From blogger to deputy minister: The story of Dennis Itumbi

Itumbi was key in Ruto’s ascension to power in the August 2022 General Election, masterminding a spirited campaign behind the keyboard that saw Ruto become the fifth President of Kenya.

Previously, Itumbi had also played a key role in former President Uhuru Kenya’s win in the 2013 and 2017 elections. Itumbi positioned himself as a key digital strategist and later as chief propagandist for the Jubilee administration. 

During his days with Kenyatta, before they fell out, Itumbi defended everything that State House did and said, and was ready with his keyboard to attack whoever opposed the government of the day.

From laying down digital strategies that indeed worked for both Kenyatta and now Ruto, Itumbi has earned himself the status of a key maker of presidents.

But how did he get here?

Itumbi trained as a journalist at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC), the Mombasa Road-based learning institution that has produced some of the best journalists in Kenya.

He then practised as a journalist in some of the leading media houses in Kenya, among them Royal Media Services.

Later, Itumbi threw himself into the digital world, when blogging was taking its course in Kenya. Itumbi’s activities together with his former friend Bogonko Bosire, earned them recognition from the former president when he was Kenya’s deputy Prime Minister.

Bogonko wrote for Jackal News, but he would later disappear in 2013 and has never been seen since. Itumbi has been pressured on several occasions to reveal where Bogonko is, but he says he doesn't know what happened to him.

“There is a brutal hope that one day he will just appear and just being Bogonko say, ‘I was neither the source nor the target’ as his mantra was… I got Bogonko into Uhuru Kenyatta’s campaign. When he went missing I’m the one who looked for his Safaricom records, looked for his M-Pesa records, to date I have contacts of morgue assistants almost in the entire country as I try to check anybody that comes in…” Itumbi defended himself in an interview with Citizen TV earlier this year.

In 2012 or thereabout, Kenyatta approached Itumbi to work for him as a digital strategist.

Itumbi said in a previous interview that he was leaving KICC when he received a phone call from a new number. Upon picking up, the person on the other end introduced himself as Uhuru Kenyatta, but Itumbi thought he was a con. He ignored him, but the person called two more times and when Itumbi agreed to meet him, it was Uhuru.

Itumbi would, later on, integrate Bogonko into Uhuru’s campaign team, and together they helped him and William Ruto to take over from the late Mwai Kibaki. That was in 2013. Uhuru then installed Itumbi as the head of Digital and Diaspora Affairs, his office being in State House.

For the first five years of Uhuru’s presidency, Itumbi viciously defended him, spinning everything on social media in the president’s favour. This saw him earn the admiration of not just the president but also his deputy William Ruto.

Come 2017 and Uhuruto were defending their seat. Yet again, Itumbi used his digital prowess to help them retain the seat against fierce opposition from Raila Odinga. He ran a spirited digital campaign that at some point saw him become a propagandist.

But after the election, Itumbi’s relationship with Uhuru deteriorated and he, together with a team of five was even kicked out of State House.

When Uhuru and Ruto’s relationship crumbled after the "Handshake" with Raila, Itumbi chose to stick with Ruto.

In the same interview with Citizen TV, he said he fell out with Uhuru because he (Uhuru) did not want him to work with Ruto.

In December 2021, Itumbi was allegedly abducted while leaving a SPA in Thindigwa, Kiambu county. As he later narrated, his abductors questioned him on why he was supporting Ruto against the wishes of the president.

Itumbi was allegedly beaten and left for dead in Lucky Summer, and was picked up by a bodaboda guy who rushed him to hospital.

As Ruto campaigned for his presidential bid, Itumbi set up an online media he called the Hustler Nation Intelligence Bureau (HNIB), from whence he dispensed Ruto’s agenda ahead of the August 2022 election.

Yet again, he spiritedly campaigned for Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, even going ahead to coach Gachagua ahead of the deputy presidential national debate.

Itumbi, once again, proved himself to be a key figure in making Ruto the president of Kenya. During the election, he set up and led a team that monitored the election results as they were posted in the IEBC servers, and when ex-IEBC chair Wafula Chebukati announced Ruto as the winner of the hotly contested election, Itumbi had cemented his reputation in Ruto’s inner circle.

After assuming office, Itumbi was asked what his role was in the Ruto administration.

“My job is come here go there, a very interesting job. The contract is with the people of Kenya through the president of the Republic of Kenya. It is not about positions, it is about what we are doing,” Itumbi said.

But now, he has a brand new position and indeed a new role in today’s government. And that role is the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) in the Ministry of Information and Communication and Digital Economy.