One-time renowned publicist whose star and rating have rapidly dwindled rapidly over the years due to her inability to adapt to the modern changing world seems to be on self-destruct mode.
On paper, Gina Din remains well regarded though industry observers sneer anytime her name is mentioned because of her expertise in using underhanded tactics to get her way. In the past, people would simply yield to her out of fear but things have changed but she still hasn’t seen the writing on the wall.
A little bird who spoke to our reporter had an interesting tale narrated about her about comments she made to friends at a social gathering recently who was taken aback at her skullduggery. She may have thought she was in the company of confidants so she let her tongue run. `To protect our sources we won’t go much into the setting but jump right into the story.
The name of blogger Robert Alai who has been seemingly unhinged lately going by how he blows hot and cold literally minutes apart became the subject of discussion. This happened after Gina Din in typical fashion name-dropped that she speaks to Raila Odinga directly and she allegedly sits on the board of the Raila Odinga campaign secretariat and is tasked with every and all things Comms in the campaign. She was then asked how come the campaign takes hit after hit from Robert Alai with no end in sight. Gina Din opened up and said that for some reason she isn’t making headway in her plans to take over the campaign and she even added that Key persons she thought would prop her up are avoiding her calls etc.
The publicist who relies on the ideas and tactics of yesteryear revealed to the small gathering that she has decided to make the campaign feel the brunt of her anger. She claimed that she pays Robert Alai who is broke after his dismal attempt running for office 300,000 Khs per post to attack Raila Odinga’s family members in the hope to scare them from helping Baba and hence leaving the coast clear for Gina Din to muscle her way around. She swore up and down that some people will know people. Her friends were aghast that Gina is now akin to the infamous term of being a fifth column, using bits of info and giving to Alai who then goes to town with it taking it for gospel truth.
Her conduct her friends came to realize reveals a lot about how she had at one time surprisingly had all the major advertisers in Kenya domiciled at her now literally moribund agency that now mainly deals with adverts for soap, toothpaste and sanitary towels. A major multinational firm is said to have terminated her contract with them after they realized that all she does is present very nice PowerPoint presentations but most of the time delivers nothing but excuses and Nairobi being a small town it means the fat contracts are now no longer rolling in.
Her willingness to offer her services to the RAO campaign board seems to be nothing more than a C repairing venture so that after the election she will claim she did this and that yada yada.
Shame on Gina Din but her slip of the tongue is symptomatic of the rot in Kenya’s corporate sector no wonder we still as a country still import toothpicks. Gina should ride off to her pad in Diani and accept that the world has changed.
Our reporter on getting wind of this story decided to do a little digging given that the investigative skills of our publication is top-notch and we struck gold. Nothing that happens in political circles can be kept silent for long especially when one of the players in the script has a knack for talking fast and loose when name dropping not knowing that Nai is a small town, very small indeed at times.
We have unearthed interesting details. Gina Din approached RAO’s campaign claiming to just want an advisory role to help. She was even allowed to be on the secretariat’s board to offer expert advice of which many in the PR industry will tell you point-blank without blinking that she knows nothing and after securing work she normally subcontracts to those who actually know what to do and she pays them a pittance after taking a hefty cut. When Gina sensed that even the campaign was finding her output wanting, she decided to fall back on her usual modus operandi.
A mole in Raila’s camp
She came up with a not so bright idea thinking she is dealing with fools of bringing in Thebe Ikalafeng a self-proclaimed branding expert to help the campaign. Initially, Gina Din had stated that she was willing to work for free as she believes in the cause and was even heard saying she needs no money know as Kenya would be a much better place and she would then make money anyway. Now, this branding expert wasn’t to come cheap, he initially quoted 350k dollars a month which was later revised to 500k a month after factoring in Gina Din’s and a former NMG top honcho’s cut.
Our source then led on to something else, there seems to be high level jostling for positions which is to be expected in any campaign that seems headed for victory like RAO’s seems poised to.
Gina Din has apparently been caught in a war in the secretariat and has allied and made herself beholden to a section of the Kikuyu elite who mistakenly believe that Baba’s famed men in black and any Luos or traditional Baba supporters should be gotten rid of completely. This seems to be because these are persons who are loyal so much that it’s hard to pull off schemes around RAO. Gina Din’s accomplice is a member of RAOs team for many years whose inefficiency and poor speech writing and well-known sympathies and association with DP Ruto, has been used to sabotage RAO much to the chagrin of hardliners who wonder how the fella has survived this long. Interestingly our reporters did a little digging and have found out that this same Thebe Ikalafeng that Gina and her associates want to force into RAOs campaign is actually a DP Ruto functionary, who even attended the wedding of WSR’s daughter. We found pictures of him at the event right on his Instagram page.
To be clear Gina Din and the former NMG to honcho are both at war with anyone from Baba’s traditional base especially loyal functionaries who they demean whimsically and the family, our source heard during a sojourn at a popular spot in the Kilimani area when hanging out with some ODM MPs, has been fighting to bring RAO back to the people instead of him being portrayed as elitist which is having a serious backlash in his traditional base of supporters.
A seasoned legislator added, after lowering his voice as the table next to where he was seated with our source was occupied by unfamiliar people, that the current holder of the house on the hill is said to have told his brother “This is not you.” Daily they are writing about your family in the blogs. Those are not your people and it’s said that the head of state insisted that RAO’s family MUST be part of the campaign to only look out for his best interests.
Gina Din has many a time approached jubilee to work for them but never made it and now the new partners also asked that she not be tasked in the current campaign. She seems to have forgotten that former foes at times when things are better to take stock and compare notes and the jubilee wing, in a nutshell, described her as an inept plastic surgeon obsessed elitist who has simply reached rock bottom. It’s common knowledge in the PR industry that the astute late Lorna Irungu, is the one who kept her firm afloat. Her firm is an empty shell at the moment that majors in marketing toothpaste and laundry detergent.
When she was working with Auma Obama during the launch of her foundation, and her brother’s visit for the launch it is said, he told his sister after everything that seemed to go well ground to a devastating halt after Gina Din was brought on board, to drop her immediately.
In a nutshell, Gina Din is nothing but nonsense on stilts coupled with hot air. We are glad we inadvertently got hold of this story. A reminder to all of us to watch whom we run our mouths around.
