Renowned blogger and digital strategist Dennis Itumbi has dismissed reports that Deputy President William Ruto is furious with his team following Kibra parliamentary race defeat.
The DP and politicians allied to Tanga Tanga faction had camped in Kibra for weeks campaigning for Jubilee Party candidate McDonald Mariga but did not get the results they expected.
Mariga emerged second with 11,230 votes behind ODM's candidate Imran Okoth who garnered 24,636 votes and was declared the MP-Elect.
In its headline, the Saturday Nation claimed Ruto was very angry with the outcome to an extent he refused to meet with the campaign team at his Karen home hours after Mariga lost to Okoth.
However, according to Itumbi, the DP actually met the team and was not furious as purported by the local publication.
The blogger accused the Nation of being fond of creating fake news and imaginary stories to portray Ruto in a bad light.
"As always, Daily Nation splashes imagination, fiction and FAKE NEWS sources direct from the GUTTER and pretends its News. Lying anonymous sources created in the collective mind of a lazy newsroom. For the record William Ruto was with team. Uwongo Mtupu! (Pure lies!)" Itumbi tweeted.
In a tweet on Friday, Ruto thanked Jubilee members for supporting Mariga, who he noted performed well judging by results the governing party got in the constituency in the 2017 polls.
At the same time, he accused some Jubilee leaders of betrayal and defying President Uhuru Kenyatta by dumping Mariga for Okoth who was sponsored by a rival party.
"Thank you all our leaders and members for standing firm with Mariga our JUBILEE candidate. We have demonstrated unprecedented resolve in the face of many odds to proudly double our % presence in territory otherwise considered no-go and shaming those who betrayed our leader and party," Ruto posted.
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru and MPs; Maina Kamanda (Nominated) and Ruth Mwaniki (Kigumo) are some senior Jubilee leaders who backed ODM in the by-election.