Bloggers for hire: Robert Alai and Dennis Ole Itumbi

A dangerous trend is emerging in Kenyan online community in which certain bloggers are being used by those in power to perpetuate their agenda by manipulating news events to suit their whims.

The bloggers guiltiest of this, and by far the most brazen, are Robert Alai and Dennis Ole Itumbi, who have been bought and paid for Raila Odinga and Uhuru Kenyatta respectively, to shamelessly push their agenda online. The Kenyan DAILY POST will not pull its punches on this and we invite anyone who disagrees to call us out.

The two, who are apparently feuding right now despite –by all accounts- being kindred spirits (more on this latter), share a penchant for twisting facts and using news items to score cheap points against their respective political overlords. They are both umber twitter users and their proximity to media houses has allowed them to get a strong following on the micro-blogging site by twitting major news stories before they are available in any of the traditional outlets.

The problem here is that the two don’t just report the news; they also add the weight of their own personal bias. Alai even recently claimed that Mvita MP is gay just because the former Tourism Minister had fallen out with ‘Daddy’. Ole Itumbi for his part has always shown a bias for Uhuru Kenyatta, to the point that he revealed the names of some of the prosecution witnesses at the Hague.

Get this straight, we are not saying that the way the other mainstream media outlets report the news is as white as snow. Anyone who reads The Star can probably give you a few examples of how…… The points here is that if journalist are supposed to present ‘ the most obtainable versions of the news’ then these two bloggers are doing Kenyans a great disservice by being in the pockets of politicians. This is all the more worrying given how in 2007 some irresponsible bloggers played a big part in spreading the propaganda that eventually led to the death of 1,300 Kenyans in the biggest orgy of violence the country has ever seen.

Surprisingly, the two have fallen out. We say surprisingly because if the two hadn’t been paid to work at cross-purposes then they would be bosom buddies (don’t all needy and self-promotional people have an affinity?). Ole Itumbi is taking Alai to court (sadly not for his atrocious grammar) but for libel. Itumbi says Alai besmirched his reputation by claiming he authored the controversial UK dossier.

So soon a Kenyan court will play host to a peculiar melodrama staring two of the most repugnant journalist in Kenya. Hopefully, the court will see through them and realise the danger they both pose to wakenya wapenda amani and………...jijazie

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