Media professionals, including practicing journalists and government communications officers from the Kalenjin community, held a strategic meeting at a Nairobi hotel on Monday evening to strategise how to launch a fightback to protect Deputy President William Ruto’s image.
According to sources familiar with the Stanley Hotel meeting, the meeting was initiated by Radio Africa Group journalist Gideon Keter, a former parliamentary reporter with the Star newspaper, and Dennis Chebitwey, a director of public communications in the ICT ministry. Chebitwey has, however, denied organising the meeting or being part of it.
Keter is the chairman of the Kenya Parliamentary Journalists Associations (KPJA). It was attended by, among others, Fanaka TV CEO Terryanne Chebet and Kaplich Barsito, a former head of the Vice President’s Press Service during the tenure of Kalonzo Musyoka and now a public relations officer in the Labour ministry.
Curiously, chairperson of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) James Ngomeli was also present, but a senior journalist who attended the meeting said Ngomeli “was talking about reporting on Energy and how to grow as an industry specific journalist.”
The journalist, who requested not to be named, said Ruto was not on the agenda of the meeting. “We meet almost every two months to chat, laugh and talk industry things. Sometimes we have a speaker on a specific industry,” said the journalist.
CREDITS, BUSINESS TODAY
