Living the State House dream is one that many people aspire but only few get to turn it into reality. In the case of the media industry, only a handful of journalists have been accorded the chance to shift from the newsroom to work for the President.
In the case of former Citizen TV Business reporter, Mumbi Warui, her brief interview with President Uhuru Kenyatta opened out-of-this-world opportunities, including a chance to work at the Presidential Delivery Unit.
Her story dates back to March 2017, whereby she got a chance to interview President Kenyatta following his interview on Nipashe with news anchor Lulu Hassan and current State House spokesperson, Kanze Dena.
With things not going as planned, she was informed that her interview opportunity depended entirely on if the Head of State was up for it.
Going through her briefs, Warui had planned to ask Kenyatta about the State of the Economy as it was an election year.
"Once Nipashe was over, I slowly made baby steps towards him as he was politely reminded that he still had one more interview to go. At this time (9pm), I was open to the fact that this interview might just not happen and was willing to settle for a selfie and a couple of pictures," she narrated on her Linkedin page, indicating that some of her colleagues were not up for the idea of her interviewing the Commander-in-Chief.
After taking her place on set, she was informed of a number of technical issues that hindered the interview; from lights to sound. In an attempt to distract the President, whose patience was running thin, she brought up a conversation of Uhuru's utterances during a previous rally in Turkana that had rubbed a section of people the wrong way and left the country talking.
"Surprisingly, the President opened up and told me how he was also human. Anyway, we discussed and laughed about it for close to five minutes. As I was learning just how hard it can be being President, all "issues" had all of a sudden disappeared and now it was his team getting impatient," she detailed.
They proceeded with the interview and Warui expressed gratitude for the opportunity which opened doors for her as in the coming months, she resigned from Citizen TV in August 2018 and joined the PDU team as a communications, Public Relations and Media Relations specialist a month later.
"All my interactions with President Uhuru Kenyatta have been pleasant but on this day, I appreciated and respected him even more. He didn't owe me the interview but this opportunity opened more doors for me and that I can only be grateful for," she heartily expressed.
Currently, she has worked for the Presidential team for three years- joining the likes of Kanze Dena at State House.
Among other roles, Warui monitors the execution of the external and internal communication policies and adherence to set standards across the Office, as stated on her LinkedIn page.
According to the entity's website, "Established in 2015, The President’s Delivery Unit is a centre of government function based in the Office of the President. Its primary remit is to improve the coordination of National Government flagship programs, monitor, evaluate and report on and the timely fulfillment of H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s key development priorities.
