Dr. Ezekiel Mutua Charms the Youth at Masinde Muliro University’s  Youth Summit.

By Rahab Kinuthia, Masinde Muliro University.

He is a charmer, ever at ease. It would be difficult for one to distinguish him among his juniors until you hear the term “ bwana CEO”.

Meet Dr. Ezekiel Mutua, Chief Executive Officer of  Kenya Films & Classification Board(KFCB). An adept and experienced   public servant having served as the Information Secretary ,Director of Information and Public  Communication  and  Secretary General of The Kenya Union of Journalists.

Even with all the details in his CV, Dr. Mutua is among those who share Lupita’s idea that “no matter where you come, your dreams are valid. ’The high school I went to is not even in the map,’ he says amidst his contagious laughter.

A strong believer in religion, he holds the opinion that at the heart of every challenge we face as a country, has something to do with moral values .Having worked in the field of communication since 1998 as a Sub Editor at Nation Media Group and up to 2011 as The Director of Information and Public Communications, Dr. Mutua says that that journalism is a calling .However, he adds that media has contributed a great deal to moral decay.

The media has glorified the notion that “if you do not know anyone you are not likely to be served and now the society has come to embrace that.”

Despite the fact that Dr Mutua believes that the new technology is a blessing, he is still an embittered man by the fact that people are consuming unrated content “this is promoting coded language that praises homosexuality and strange cultures among our children. You will find a boy saying that he has lost interest in girls because he heard someone else saying it and he thinks it is classy and trendy” he quips.

From the look of things, one might get a conviction that Dr. Mutua’s life has all along been a bed of roses, I mean he has everything that a man would yearn for. A family and a thriving culture, well, a man’s success is measured by the number of huddles he overcomes and Dr. Mutua has not been spared either. He went to a local primary school just like any other child of a parent living below the dollar, and wait nobody would even recognize the name of that school even if I wrote it here. Being a bright boy, Dr. Mutua won the hearts of the villagers and they held a harambee to take him to high school.

“The other day when I visited my parents in the village, my neighbor was showing me the field where my harambee was conducted” recalls Mutua . He went to a local secondary school but even there he never let go of his dream. His dreams were big. “The decisions I made during the four years I was in secondary school have and will be the determiner of the next forty years of my life.” Dr. Mutua believes that it’s never too late for anyone to shape their future in the right direction.

About his take on politics Dr. Mutua has one broad explanation. He quotes the former US president Barrack Obama “you can’t keep complaining that leadership is bad, plunge in.”  He is a man who believes that it’s not about the position that a politician holds, it’s about who we are and what we stand for as a society. “If I will run for any political seat I will go to the highest position so that I can impact the society sustainably. We must get to a position where we treasure what we are giving, not because of the position we hold but because of what we stand for. It’s not about the position, it’s about where I will have the platform and opportunity to influence the society and bring the real change that society wants.” Dr. Mutua concludes.   He believes that if nepotism and corruption were the only ways to get to the table then he wouldn’t have had the chance in life. “I want my children to get jobs not because they are the children of Dr. Ezekiel Mutua but because they have earned it.” He dreams of a nation where hard work is rewarded and everybody who is educated or has an idea will be given space for that idea to thrive.

Dr. Mutua believes that we can have a Kenya whereby people respect the law not because it is imposed on them but because it is a culture of obedience to the law.

“I am the police of moral value and I want to create a conversation on moral values. I will go to any heights to ensure that the conversation is not lost along the way.” Dr. Mutua concludes.

“You cannot talk about stopping the breakdown of our moral fabric and fail to mention this to man” says Dr. Ezekiel Mutua. What if all the leaders had the same mentality? Where would Kenya be as far as the fight against tribalism and corruption is concerned?

Rahab is a student of Masinde Muliro University. Email: rahabkinuthia42@gmail.com