State House Director for Digital and Diaspora Communications Dennis Itumbi has come under fire for praising the clobbering of journalists by police on Monday night at JKIA.
A scuffle ensued between law enforcers and the press who were covering a stand-off involving the state and lawyer Miguna Miguna.
Miguna was forcefully bundled into an Emirates plane destined for Dubai for his re-deportation but he resisted this.
It is at this point that cameramen filming the drama as well as other journalists present were pounced upon by GSU officers.
Two journalists, a cameraman attached to NTV and Citizen TV’s political reporter Samuel Letoo were injured. Letoo sustained head injuries while the NTV cameraman sustained a cut on his left arm.
Itumbi in a Facebook post praised the police officers stating “they have done well”.
“We cannot have such scenes in an international airport anywhere in the world. Journalism is not an absolute right. If a police order is lawfully given, you leave and if you believe it was wrong, challenge it in court,” said Itumbi.
He went on: “You cannot openly defy a police order on live TV. On that I must say police did well. You will never see such stuff in other airports.”
But Kenyans took offense in his remark and lambasted him.
Josh Koomee told Itumbi, “You are sick.”
“Something must be seriously wrong with your head,” Mejah John said.
Steve Martins warned Itumbi not to celebrate because he could be the victim someday. “One day you will be a victim I can assure you.”
Patrick Gichuhi Pat said the attack on journalists by police showed “stupidity” on the part of the administration. “This is called administration stupidly.”