Chege Mbitiru: The veteran scribe renowned for brevity

The media fraternity is mourning the death of seasoned journalist Chege Mbitiru, the ‘king of short sentences’, who died aged 77.

Mr Mbitiru, a long-time Nation columnist, foreign news editor and at one point Sunday Nation managing editor, also worked for other news organisations, including the Associated Press.

Born in Kijabe, Mr Mbitiru went to Ohio University after which he worked for the Sandusky Register in Ohio and the Saginaw News in Michigan.

He then returned to Kenya to work with the Kenya News Agency before joining the Nation Media Group (NMG).

NMG Editorial Director Mutuma Mathiu remembered Mr Mbitiru as “a great journalist”.

Mr Mathiu added: “He was a true gentleman and a great journalist who will be greatly missed by his legion of admirers and readers alike.”

Former Nation foreign editor Henry Owuor mourned Mbitiru as a “distinguished correspondent who remained a true Nation friend for all the decades he worked as a journalist.”

Veteran journalist Kibe Kamunyu said he remembers him as a lecturer at the School of Journalism, where Mr Mbitiru kept repeating to his students: “If your mother tells you she loves you, go check it out.”

Mr Kamunyu also remembers Mr Mbitiru for his brevity: “His sentences would be five, at most ten words”.

Long-serving editor Mutegi Njau, who was a news editor when Mr Mbitiru was managing the Sunday Nation, remembers him for “his humility” as well as his guidance.

“But that doesn’t mean he was a meek editor. If one made a careless or stupid mistake one got a tough tongue-lashing and if necessary, a memo,” Mr Njau said.