According to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the former administration plotted to kill social media strategist Dennis Itumbi for supporting President William Ruto, who had a falling out with his then-boss Uhuru Kenyatta.
Itumbi worked at State House during Kenyatta’s first term, but then moved to Ruto’s office, where he remained.
“There was a meticulous plot in place to execute this young man” (Itumbi). His kidnappers treated him inhumanely as they planned his execution, but because there is God, people raised alarm through social media, forcing his tormentors to abandon the plot,” Gachagua said of Itumbi’s abduction.
Speaking in Kerugoya on Sunday, Gachagua revealed that Itumbi was a close aid of President William Ruto.
“Many of you wonder what is the work of Itumbi. His office is come here go there. He is a close friend to our President,” he said.
Itumbi was kidnapped by people he thought were police officers, who tortured him before releasing him with serious injuries. He was later rescued and taken to the hospital by a boda boda rider.
Gachagua, who spoke in Itumbi’s Kirinyaga backyard on Sunday, said the initial plan was to kill him, but it was scrapped due to social media pressure.
Gachagua stated that Itumbi owes his survival to God and Kenyans while recounting the events of the day of his kidnapping, noting that his execution had been sanctioned by powerful forces in the previous regime.
He went on to say that, in light of the “crimes” committed by the Uhuru Kenyatta administration against Kenyans, it would take time for some of the victims, including himself, to forgive their perpetrators.
Despite Gachagua acknowledged the bible says we forgive wrongdoers, he said some incidents were hard to forgive and forget.
“Our Bishop has preached of forgiveness but some scenarios are hard to forget,” he said.
Itumbi, who switched allegiances to President Ruto after a falling out with Uhuru, was kidnapped from a barbershop in Kiambu, tortured, and dumped in Lucky summer by people suspected of being state agents in December 2021.
He was later rescued by a Good Samaritan and taken to the hospital for treatment of serious leg injuries.
Itumbi said last month, a year after his ordeal, that he had forgiven his tormentors, who had nearly killed him.
“I forgive all those who wronged me. I forgive the senior security officers who abducted and tortured me,” Itumbi said this week when he hosted a chapati forum that involved frying chapatis for distribution to the disadvantaged ahead of Christmas, “I am now very happy and this event is to remember the events of that fateful night when they wanted to kill me,” Itumbi said on December 25.
