Did Bogonko Bosire's Controversial Jackal News Blog Contribute to his Mysterious Disappearance? - Part 4
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| Bogonko Bosire, the popular Jubilee blogger who disappeared in 2013 without trace. (Photo/NMG) |
After getting fired by AFP news agency, Bogonko Bosire's life was thrown into a tailspin. His work had become his home. And maybe he didn't know how to live life anymore.
So he went back to what he knows best or at least, a version of it. The man was being reborn, through his newest creation, Jackal News, that operated by the mantra, "You're either a source or a target."
Jackal News, the blog started by Bogonko, came to life in 2011 immediately after he lost his job at AFP.
In the beginning, the site had all the hallmarks of a news website, complete with business section, news, politics, and other categories.
The stories done by him, it's only employee, carried the punch, and the style of the now blogger-in-chief Bogonko Bosire. Unknown to readers, Bogonko had enlisted the help of an acquaintance to register the site for him and post stories on his behalf.
Read:
- Bogonko Bosire: The Mysterious Disappearance - Part 1
- Bogonko Bosire: The Twisted Genius - Part 2
- Bogonko Bosire: Dennis Itumbi Connection - Part 3
It looked like a joint venture but the details of the engagement are unclear, but this relationship had ups and downs.
According to Dennis Itumbi, Jackal News, was co-owned by Bogonko and one Moses Rono. Moses Rono now works for BBC monitoring.
It is not clear if the site was making money, and how the arrangement of ownership of the blog was structured.
In 2013 August, a month before Bogonko's disappearance, a post on Jackal News, titled, "New investor eyes Jackal News," details Dennis Itumbi's interest in Jackal News'.
This story was based on a bidding war on Twitter, which kicked off with Itumbi declaring interest. Itumbi's between initial tweet was directed to Bogonko. So, based on this tweet, the story that we are talking about, was written.
Some pointers though. Remember Itumbi telling us that him and former KIMC had done a small fundraiser for Bogonko to enable him have a small office from where he would run his blog? Therefore, if he helped him launch Jackal News, then, why was he trying to buy or invest in it two years later?
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The available data clearly shows that Jackal News was not profitable which contradicts with Itumbi's assertions that it was. In 2014, a whole year after Bogonko disappeared, Jackal News was still in operation. Secondly, his personal social media handles were being updated Bogonko Bosire.
There was in fact a bizarre post soon after Bogonko went missing in 2013. That post really was perhaps the first marker that shows, the sort of like the ups and downs in the relationship between people who owned the site.
There were many tweets sporadically sent from his handle but the most disturbing one was from second February 2014, in which the person tweeting said, Bogonko Bosire, at the end became an irritant, a drunkard and whose income was all about blackmailing everyone. That tweet was followed by another one the same day alleging that Bogonko died.
" know because I'm posting from the phone he had. He had become a loose mouth and he had to be eliminated," read the tweet in parts.
Sadly, there's some truth in those tweets, particularly the drinking and blackmailing. Everyone had become prey and Jackal News was their hunter. This, however, is not a justification to kill someone or force them to disappear.
This continued posting has been a source of pain and anxiety for the family.
While the Jackal News website did not reveal who was using Bogonko's personal handles to tweet, this deeply disturbing and upsetting messages, indeed reveal the evolution of its owner.
The content of the website, tell the story of its own. The blog started imitating a news site, then it mutates into a gossip site. And here the site wrote everything about sleazy details and major gossips in town, mainly in Kenyan newsrooms. Stories like, who was sleeping with whom et cetera.
In 2012 Jackal News reported on the two political outfits that were challenging for Kenya's top leadership. Prime Minister Raila Odinga's ODM and Deputy Prime Minister's Uhuru Kenyatta's Jubilee.
Jubilee stories were favorable. In fact, Jackal News was Jubilee's propaganda agency, hitting hard on ODM while saying flowery things about Jubilee.
And this propping up of Jubilee was not by mistake, or by chance. Bogonko was hired by the Jubilee campaign team in 2012.
"I knew that his political leaning had changed by that time because before that he subscribed to another political leaning," Dennis Onsarigu, a renowned investigative journalist says.
So while his friends thought he had just switched sides, Bogonko had, in fact, moved past, and beyond being a supporter. He was deep in Jubilee campaign.
When he was reported missing, there is one photo that has been prominent that was used for his missing persons poster. And it's an interesting picture, of Bogonko crossing his arms seated in front of a MacBook computer in an office. The photo in question is the one used in this story at the beginning.
This picture was taken between December 2012 to march 2013. It was taken up at the Chancellery house, which acted as the headquarters of the Jubilee machinery that powered their 2013 electoral victory. The bigwigs of the Jubilee party would gather here to meet their campaign team.
From Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Jimmy Wanjigi, Alfred Gitonga to Njee Muturi, you name them, and this is the place where you'd find them. Access to these heaquarter was limited.
No Member of Parliament, nor candidates for any positions had access to this location. Many even didn't know it existed. But yet Bogonko had access to these buildings. The existence of this picture shows the kind of access that Bogonko had, and just how close he was to power and powerful people.
The picture was taken right at the heart of Uhuru campaign machinery, a place where accidents didn't happen. It is clear, he belonged here. He looks relaxed in the photo presumably taken by one of his colleagues in the campaign.
This office was established by with now disgraced Cambridge Analytica. It shows their need to contain information. By the way they set up the office to maintain secret.
The MacBook behind Bogonko's image was one of about 50. It couldn't communicate to anyone outside the firewall, built by the Cambridge Analytica.
According to former Jubilee secretariat members, Bogonko was hired as a PR and Op-ed communication specialist. For that service, he had about, 100,000 Kenya shillings, a month.
So, back to political loyalty, a lot of friends didn't know that Bogonko not only changed his political leaning, but he was an active operative for the Jubilee machinery.
In 2012, months before elections, he switched sides, and made predictions that came to pass.
Bogonko's relationship with Jubilee was so sweet that he began telling people he would be working at State House, once the election period was over. He was so confident of his prospects, that he shared the news with his mother.
Many are puzzled that someone who had such proximity to power would just disappear into thin air. And it's not just his family that he left with anxiety. At the time of his disappearance, many journalists wondered if they were next.
Ultimately, Bosire never got to work at the State House, and was never to be a government employee. But his adventure with Jubilee did not end with the election.
During the Jubilee campaigns, he got acquainted with a Mwea woman who was a Jubilee supporter on Facebook. This is the 'girl' that Itumbi mentioned in his statement released two weeks after Bogonko went missing.
No journalist covering Bogonko's disappearance has been able to identify the girl and interview her. Nobody knows whether she even ever existed in the first place.
In Part 5 next, we delve on the mysterious Mwea woman.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was transcribed & edited from the Nation's Afripod podcast.