- Gilgil MP Martha Wangari said the family of Gatuthu came to learn about his death from Mutua’s tweet.
- Kinangop MP Zachary Thuku said Mutua was wrong to tweet about the demise of David Karira Gatuthu before informing his family.
Image: ALFRED MUTUA/ X
Tourism and Wildlife CS Alfred Mutua has come under heavy criticism from MPs for his February tweet about the death of staff at Kenya’s High Commission in the UK.
Members of the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations said Mutua, then the Foreign and Diaspora Affairs CS, was insensitive and caused more pain to the family of the deceased.
Kinangop MP Zachary Thuku said Mutua was wrong to tweet about the demise of David Karira Gatuthu before informing his family.
“We are very happy with President William Ruto for giving Kenyans a new Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi," Thuku said.
"That is an office which should be occupied by someone who knows what he is doing, a person who will give Kenya a good image.”
The death of Gatuthu was confirmed by Mutua in a tweet on February 18, 2023.
He was a Foreign Service Officer at the High Commission.
"My sincere condolences to the family of one of our Foreign and Diaspora Affairs staff David Gatuthu, who passed away while on posting after a short illness," said CS Mutua.
"To the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs fraternity, take heart at this time of losing a colleague."
Gilgil MP Martha Wangari said the family of Gatuthu came to learn about his death from Mutua’s tweet.
“It was a very cruel way of learning about the death of your loved one,” Wangari stated.
The MPs made the remarks during a committee meeting with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Affairs CS Musalia Mudavadi had been scheduled to appear before the committee to respond to questions surrounding the controversial death of Gatuthu.
Ambassador Josephat Maikara, Secretary of Foreign Service, represented him at the meeting.
Gatuthu was hospitalised in London but left the facility under unclear circumstances.
On February 17, 2023, Gatuthu’s body was found outside of a building located about 30 kilometers away from the hospital.
It was alleged that the deceased had committed suicide. Mutua is not new to controversy.
In January 2022, he publicly apologised after he tweeted condoling Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, on fake news alluding that his wife Pauline had died.
Mutua was the first one to tweet the condolence message on his X account (formerly Twitter), which went viral on social media before he retracted the statement minutes later.
Pauline has been ailing for several years.
“I wish to apologize for the earlier post about the family of H.E. Kalonzo Musyoka. This was a result of misinformation and a hoax from several players, some, seemingly credible and close to H.E. Kalonzo, who made it seem like a message to me about the family,” the then Machakos Governor tweeted after coming under fire from Kenyans on Twitter and political leaders