Embattled Governor Alfred Mutua shares how Dubai changed his life financially

DUBAI - the place that stabilized my finances.

I have spent a few days in Dubai on my way home. I feel motivated to share:

I was comfortably working as a lecturer and also as a foreign correspondent in Sydney, Australia. I had a PhD and even served as a Communications Director for a massive organization. I was on my fifth year in Australia and things were looking up and up.

My expansive work got me noticed and I was head-hunted to work in the United Arab Emirates. I received an e-mail while I was on the island of Bioko in the capital city of Equatorial Guinea called Malabo, offering me a job. I was reluctant at first but a few months later, the thought of being close to home tipped the scales (plus the hefty pay package they offered).

And so, I came to Dubai to be an Assistant Professor of Communications and Media at Zayed University. I then transversed the Middle East researching and writing. I embarked on making films in the region and at the same time got a lucrative consultancy job with a leading media house in Kenya. I had several weekly columns in newspapers in Kenya (remember Msafiri?) and was becoming reknown as a communications specialist.

It was then that Kibaki’s Government noticed me and found me and I quit my Dubai job and came to Kenya (taking a huge pay cut), to be the country’s founding Government Spokesperson.

It was working in Dubai, though, that stabilized my financial world. I was able to use the monies I made there to clear all loans and buy properties, including land in Kenya. I was also able to buy equipment for my production company (did someone say Cobra Squad?) and undertake many other investment ventures. 

I came back home to serve my people and I feel blessed that I came back financially stable because of my time and opportunity offered to me in Dubai. For that, I will always be grateful to Almighty God.

- Pic: Outside Dubai mall - still a bit jetlagged - but quite happy and relaxed.