The unanswered and unasked questions in Ngunyi interview

A number of unanswered and unasked questions regarding the Nation interview with Mutahi Ngunyi stick out like a sore thumb.

They have been suggested in comments by readers and viewers. But before checking them out, let me commend Washington Gikunju, Managing Editor for Planning and News Desk at NMG, for a very readable interview story, notwithstanding the unanswered and unasked questions.

Let me also say Prof Ngunyi was in his element as the Great Communicator and oracle of Kenyan politics.

The interview comes a week after his “Public Notice” on August 7 that he had “defected” to President William Ruto. “I mis-judged him using the dynasty lens,” he says in the tweet.

“But if the facts change, you must change your mind. And only a fool doesn’t change his mind. I started Project #HustlerNation. Now I must complete it. Iko swali? (Literally, is there a question or questions?)”

There are at least a dozen questions regarding the interview (“Uhuru insider reveals Raila, Ruto secrets after ‘defecting’”—Sunday Nation, Aug. 13, 2023). I’ll deal with only four, for reasons of space.

Video redacted

The first question: Why was the video made available to the public redacted? The video posted in Nation.Africa doesn’t begin at the beginning and doesn’t end at the end. It begins with the words “You know the person who actually defected from the original idea of Jubilee was actually Uhuru Kenyatta...” and ends with “I remember a meeting uh once and I can reveal this...”(That is, meeting at Harambee House “to appraise ourselves on the election” with then-Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho chairing” and other stories are missing from this video).

There is no indication, either, of how long the interview was. The video in Nation.Africa is 21:49 minutes. Another one posted on YouTube is 29.05 minutes but it was also redacted. What’s more, on Wednesday night, it was taken down “due to a copyright claim by Nation Media Group”.

The content of the video available to the public is formless and unstructured. In many instances, the viewer doesn’t know where one statement or idea ends and another begins. This is because the interview questions have been redacted.

The second question: Why were the questions redacted? Questions are important in an interview that is reproduced verbatim. They guide the reader or viewer on where the conversation is going. Without the questions, the viewer is lost as to why something is being said and whether it makes sense. Questions help the viewer to follow and decipher the messages.

Prof Ngunyi made his millions consulting for the National Youth Service (NYS). In September 2016, it was reported that his firm, The Consulting House, received contracts worth a total of Sh90 million from the NYS, and as President Kenyatta’s technical adviser he also made millions.

In the interview, Prof Ngunyi says he has told President Ruto to give him “a function that propagates the idea of the Hustler Nation.”

Mr Gikunju retorts: “So, are you doing this just for the money?” Prof Ngunyi responds: “I don’t think that the Kenya Kwanza government can afford me, to be honest...maybe they can, I don’t know.”

The third question: Prof Ngunyi, what is your self-worth? How much do you charge as a consultant? He says he had a long heart-to-heart conversation with President Ruto in which he apologised “for being very rough during the election because I was not a good person...my tweets and my YouTube channel really went hard on him, so I felt it was important that I mend fences.”

A subset of his pupils and mentees—some brilliant young lawyers, political scientists and economists—were the real faces of his YouTube channel, The Fifth Estate TV.

So the final question: “Prof Ngunyi, following your defection and apology, have you squared up with your TV presenters? What have you told Tuje, JM, Mare X, 2M, Horio, DK, PG and Mrs K?

Let me conclude by reproducing some of the views of Kabaria ole Muturi of Nyeri. They echo those of many other readers. In Oliver Twist, a novel by Charles Dickens, he says, a character christened ‘The Artful Dodger’ survives where his peers tumble.

“Wherever he goes, it’s all about knowing where his bread has more creamy butter and being exemplarily sharp about it.... If I was Kenya Kwanza, I would only touch such a character with a ten-foot pole.”

- The Public Editor is an independent news ombudsman who handles readers’ complaints on editorial matters including accuracy and journalistic standards. Email: [email protected]. Call or text 0721989264.