President Ruto at Kalasha Awards: Itumbi, I gave you a job and told you what the job description is. Tell the audience what we are doing on piracy.#KBCniYetu pic.twitter.com/acAH6jXa0f
— KBC Channel 1 News (@KBCChannel1) May 3, 2026
Head of Presidential Special Projects and the Creative Economy, Denis Itumbi, was in the spotlight at Saturday’s Kalasha Awards Gala when President William Ruto, who was in attendance to talk about the creative economy, gave him a public ultimatum.
At the end of his speech, President Ruto asked Mr Itumbi to the stage to discuss the work he was doing about piracy.
In March, the Government began working on a framework to curb piracy in the country. The Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy started the work by convening a national forum to tackle digital piracy, bringing together regulators, broadcasters, telecommunications companies and creative sector representatives to develop coordinated measures against a practice “costing Kenya’s economy billions of shillings annually”.
Speaking about the work in the creative economy sector, Ruto asked Itumbi to tell the audience what they had done so far.
“I have a guy I gave a job, called Denis Itumbi,” Ruto began. “ I want Denis to come right here. I gave you a job, and I told you what the job description was. I want you to answer something about piracy.”
Taking to the stage, Denis Itumbi said that work had already started, but it was slow-moving.
“It is true we have a problem on piracy (sic). What is happening is that we have a board under the Kenya Film Commission that’s dealing with piracy that has been slow in giving the results,” said Itumbi.
In his remarks, he also attributed the loss of the MultiChoice streamer, Showmax, to piracy: “We have indeed lost Showmax due to piracy,” said Itumbi.
The MultiChoice group announced in early March that it would discontinue the streaming service following what it described as a “comprehensive review” of its streaming operations. In a shocking move reported by KBC Digital, the group also said the decision had been influenced by “the substantial annual losses experienced by the Showmax business”, which had proved “unsustainable”.
“The decision to phase out Showmax reflects our focus on building a sustainable, competitive business for the long term in an increasingly demanding global streaming environment,” MultiChoice said at the time.
Continuing in his response, Itumbi offered a timeline for the board’s work on piracy. He said in two weeks, they would have made progress.
“What I can pledge here today is that in the next two weeks, we will bring to you a roadmap. We are going to sit with some members of this team…we will pick five creatives, and we are going to come back to you with a roadmap on what we intend to do,” said Itumbi.
In his response before bidding farewell to the audience, President Ruto warned Itumbi that that work was important to keeping his job.
“And that stands between you and your job. You should know that,” Ruto concluded.
