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| The disappeared blogger Bogonko Bosire. (Photo/NMG) |
You may remember from Part 1 that when Bogonko Bosire went missing, a lot of people were expecting Dennis Itumbi his best friend at the time, and a high ranking government official with access to every state machinery then, to have answers.
At the time of Bogonko's disappearance, Dennis Itumbi was the Director of Digital, and Diaspora at Statehouse, Nairobi, a position he assumed when Jubilee government came to office in 2013.
Bosire on the other hand was running his popular blog, The Jackal news. When he disappeared, a lot of people expected Itumbi to have answers. Many were, however, dismissive of the claims that Bosire was missing. They could not understand how he could just disappear when he had friends in high places. And Kenya, as we know, is a country that operates on, "if you know people", then your safety, and your future is guaranteed.
His closest friend, Itumbi, worked for the government of the day, and was a regular figure at State House, the house on the hill where Kenyan president resides. Because of that Bogonko's friends were close to power, and wielding the same. Many people assumed that Bogonko's safety was guaranteed.
KEEP READING
- Throwback: Seamless On-Air Chemistries to Have Reverberated Kenyan Radio Airwaves in Post-2000 Era
- Bogonko Bosire: The Mysterious Disappearance - Part 1
- -Bogonko Bosire: The Twisted Genius - Part 2
- Bogonko Bosire: Jackal News Blog Puzzle - Part 4
In fact, this assumption led others to even believe that Bogonko had apparently escaped the country under the protection of the government's or, with the help of some of his friends in high places. It is here, the claims of Bogonko being in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, or some other country. His family, actually believes this to be true.
Unfortunately, this assumption, derailed his search. As days, weeks, months, and years went by, it was clear that the such for Bogonko had gone cold, or even not taken seriously at all by authorities in the first place. The country had moved on, his friends in high places had moved on. His disappearance, was a subject matter that either confused friends, or made people really uncomfortable.
How does a very well known blogger disappear without a trace. Do we have any new leads?
"Well, when I interviewed, Bogonko's friends and family in 2015, most of them insisted that the only person with answers as to what happened to the Bogonko was Dennis Itumbi. Like everyone including Muhammed Ali and Dennis Onsarigo who at the time were like the top investigative journalists in Kenya," Vinjo Njogu, a journalist says.
"Bogonko worked closely with Dennis Itumbi in the run up to 2013 general elections. In fact, when we heard that Bogonko had gone missing, we set up a WhatsApp group and a Facebook account to try and help in his search. And luckily and coincidentally, Dennis happened to be in this WhatsApp group because this was a whatsapp group for my former classmates and Itumbi was one of them," Onsarigo says..
He adds: "For weeks there was a flurry of activity trying to locate Bosire. The fact that weeks later, this died down, got me thinking that someone somewhere was not keen on having Bogonko traced because, Itumbi was in government. And I thought because of his proximity to power, he should be in a position to try and help this man located.
"At his disposal, his intelligence system could push for locating Bosire, but this is not what happened. I have a feeling that something bad might have happened. I have a feeling also, that laxity on the part of government, to try and help find the guy. I remember the days when we're thrown off the scent by people saying that Bogonko is somewhere in Zimbabwe, you ask yourself, what could this man be doing in this African country?
"There was time when they tell told us Bogonko was located somewhere in Mwea, in Central Kenya in with a woman whose identity we have never gotten to know, up until now. I think Itumbi owes us an explanation on Bosire's whereabouts."
Dennis Onsarigo and Mohammed Ali made their mark as investigative journalists. In their line of work, they had covered several cases of missing persons. Bogonko's case was personal to them because he was a fellow scribe. This one hit differently because they knew Bogonko and crossed paths quite often. But it's not just the journalists who were demanding answers. Bogonko's sister made a passionate plea to Itumbi asking him to reveal the whereabouts of her brother.
"He was among his best friendy that he used to stay with, work with, and socialize with. I think they must be knowing something. If you look at his Facebook posts before he disappeared, Itumbi featured a lot," says Bogonko's sister.
With everyone pointing fingers at Itumbi because he was Bogonko's close friend and close associate, was that a cause for suspicion?
"It was not suspicion per se. It was expectation that Itumbi who was a state employee with substantial influence could have produced Bogonko if he wanted to. That and the fact that people used to see them together in the final days, made many believe Itumbi could have been privy to crucial information," Njogu adds.
Onsarigo notes: "I met Bogonko a few days before the 2013 general elections at popular joint and was in the company of Dennis Itumbi. I remember telling my friend that we might have been among the last people to see Bogonko just weeks before he disappeared. And when I met him this time, Bogonko looked different and brushed out."
Itumbi and Bogonko's it friendship, began in college, to be precise, 20 years ago. The two met as students at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) between 2000 and 2003.
By the time of Bogonko's disappearance, they had been friends for over 13 years.
Aware that the whole country was asking him questions about the disappearance of his best friend, Itumbi wrote a lengthy Facebook post in 2013, in which he detailed the sequence of Bogonko's movements during his final week.
"That Facebook post was as a result of pressure that was mounting on him in a private Facebook group, which constituted many of Bogonko's former college mates. In that group, Itumbi assured us that he was in communication with the family and that he had contacted DCI, Industrial area and had pressured them to work on Bogonko's case.
"So when I called him in 2015, my main goal was to find out how far the DCI had gone in finding out what had happened to Bogonko and to see if there's anything his family or friends could do to facilitate further investigations. In 2015, Itumbi was a big shot. He always traveled with the President and by the time I was calling him he did not have much time," Njogu adds further.
Njogu would eventually get an interview with Itumbi which was quite a revelation on the friendship between Itumbi and Bogonko. In the interview, we see their relationship evolve from acquaintances to close confidants. Bogonko confided in Itumbi about his work, his ambition and, above all, his idea of a dream girl, shining with him, intimate details of his crushes who included media personalities.
Bogonko's idea of a one-legged woman was amusing, but when you really think about it, Bogonko was a man who spoke in metaphors, this might not be literal by interpretation. What Bogonko wanted was an imperfect human who would just be perfect.
"What I can confirm is that for years, he was crushing on Mwenda Kiogora. He confided in me about this crush. To be clear, it was evident that Kiogora did not feel the same way. I felt that Bogonko went through periods of crushes. Like before Kiogora, he was crashing on his deskmate, Peggy. I have heard from many people that whenever he crushes on girls, he was mean to them. Just talk about mixed signals," Njogu, who was also Bogonko's crush and classmate, states.
The more we interviewed Itumbi, the more we established how deep their friendship was. Itumbi described, yet another side of Bogonko that we have not heard from anyone else.
He told us Bogonko had a sort of arrogance that rubs people the wrong way. He also told us that there was nothing that Bogonko would not do. He would wear women's clothes and just had a social life of his own.
Bogonko was unorthodox. Rules did not apply to him, he did what he pleased. Just as Bogonko confided in Itumbi about his crashes, when he lost his job at AFP, he reached out to his friend of over 13 years, Dennis Itumbi, to help him, raise capital for a venture Jackal News.
And so this website Jackal News acted as an avatar. It was an extension of Bogonko. He would fight with the Kenyan media personalities frequently. He took slanted political views and was happy to make political enemies as well. At the time of his disappearance. He was in the middle of writing a story about a girl who had been made pregnant by a sitting MP, according to Itumbi's long Facebook post in 2013. Please mark this because it's important for later.
Everyone would call Bogonko for tips, people trying to settle scores with other colleagues and business partners, would give him stories. Bogonko then became a walking police station where people reported all manner of social ills. The man had transitioned from filing copies at AFP to owning the news. Some of his friends who are close to him and still had the courage of telling him off, tried to warn him of the dangers of his Jackal News.
In Part 4, we will delve deeper into the activities of Jackal News and find out whether it had anything to do with his mysterious disappearance.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was transcribed & edited from the Nation's Afripod podcast.