Dennis Itumbi, four PSCU staff lose jobs as posts scrapped

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has scrapped five positions within Presidential Strategic Communication Unit (PSCU) and terminated the contracts of those who were holding the posts.

The positions scrapped include that of the Senior Director, Communication (Events and Branding), Senior Director, Communications (Digital, Innovation, Diaspora Communication), Senior Director, Communications (Speech Writing), Director, Communication (Events and Branding) and the Principal Information Officer (Head of Digital Strategies).

Among those sent home as a result of the restructuring is Dennis Itumbi, who has been the Director of Digital Communications at the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit (PSCU) since President Uhuru Kenyatta was elected in 2013.

Others are lawyer Eric Ng’enoh who has been the Director of Messaging, James Mureithi and David Musau both who were part of the directorate of communication (events and branding) in the Presidency and John Ndolo (Principal Information Officer – Head of Digital Strategies)

In a letter copied to the PS in the Ministry of Public Service, PSC CEO Simon Rotich said the declared positions had been abolished as part of efforts to reorganise the government.

“The contracts of the five are terminated in accordance with termination clauses to facilitate the payments of gratuities on pro rata basis,” he said.

A source has told the Nation that all the five individuals have been ordered to return government properties in their possession including official badges.

However, the five individuals have not been reporting to State House for quite some time now and the decision by PSC to scrap their position is the official confirmation that the time is really up for the group who at the height of their reign was simply called State House digital warriors.

Signs that the end for the team was nigh have been all over the place especially because of Itumbi’s conduct.

Itumbi has been a thorn in the flesh of the government with his pro-Ruto rhetoric that has worked hard to portray President Uhuru Kenyatta and his men in government in bad light.

He is currently facing criminal charges after he was accused of falsifying a document which the prosecutors say was intended to cause anxiety to the general public.

In the alleged letter, Itumbi had claimed that some of members of the Cabinet were planning to assassinate Deputy President William Ruto.

The letter claimed that there had been an alleged meeting at Hotel La Mada in Nairobi with the DP as the main agenda.

In June 2016, President Kenyatta reprimand Mr Itumbi and his three fellow directors — Edward Irungu, Munyori Buku and Eric Ng’enoh — over the perceived combative manner of their handling of State House communications.

The rebuke came after the quartet released what was seen as an unnecessarily hard-hitting rejoinder to a New York Times special report on the ICC cases, which had collapsed by then.