‘Aumwe kabisa’, Ciru Muriuki responds to Ciku Muiruri

BBC journalist Ciru Muriuki says she won’t change her Twitter handle from @CiruMuriuki to @WanjikuWaMuriuki simply because veteran media personality Ciku Muiruri has an issue with her [Ciru’s] name sounding so similar to hers [Ciku’s].

A Twitter user, @kjmuiru, had on Friday, September 27, advised Ciru to change her Twitter handle to settle the identity debate, which has now gotten ugly on social media.

“[I am] changing no s**t. Aumwe kabisa [Let her bottle up her frustrations],” Ciru Muriuki responded to @kjmuiru.

On Friday afternoon, Ciku Muiruri was breathing fire after Ciru Muriuki allegedly accused her [Muiruri] of sending out certain tweets that end up affecting Muriuki’s brand negatively.   

Ciku alleged that given the near-similarity in the spelling and pronunciation of their names, Ciru was out to rein in on what Ciku posts in a bid to protect her brand.

But Ciku said she owes no one a duty of care on how she uses her social media pages, so long as her posts are accepted by the wider society and are abiding by the rules of appropriate online posting.

Ciku further said Ciru shouldn’t feel she is more of a brand than her, given Ciru found her in the industry and chose to adopt a name nearly-similar to hers [Ciku’s] despite being advised against doing so by her former boss.

Ciku Muiruri posted her gripe on her official Facebook page on Friday, September 27.

“Someone comes onto the scene many, many, many years later, and uses a name similar to mine, and now cries victim every time she is mistaken for me,” said Ciku on her official Facebook page on Friday.

“I refuse to be used as a punching bag when you found me here, minding my own business. If you want your brand to stand out, the first logical step is not to ride on someone else’s name and then cry foul when it no longer suits you,” added Ciku Muiruri.

Ciru Muriuki, however, claims Ciku Muiruri feels so entitled, yet, they -- both -- do not have control over the names they are given by their parents.

“Hehehe. [It] looks like I have to ask my mother to rename me so that I don’t ‘ride on someone’s name’. But she [Ciku Muiruri] is right about [me joining the media industry] ‘many many many many many many years later [than her]’,” said Ciru Muriuki on Twitter on Friday.

The former NTV panelist, thereafter, went ahead to retweet a post by one Twitter user, @TheJimmy_K, who sarcastically described Ciku Muiruri.

“Where's the confusion? Ciru Muriuki is the BBC journalist, Ciku Muiruri is the author who will plug her book in an unrelated tweet about your brutal death,” read @TheJimmy_K’s tweet.

In mid-September this year, Ciru Muriuki found herself facing the wrath of Kenyans on Twitter after the online users confused her for Ciku Mururi, whom they accused of taking advantage of the Tob Cohen murder story to sell her book titled “Love is But a Dream”.

Ciku claimed, in her social media post, that she knew both Cohen and his widow, Sarah Wairimu. At the end of her post, she asked her followers to buy her book so as to find out more about her thoughts on love.

Ciru woke up on a Saturday morning (September 14) to a barrage of scathing comments from Kenyans on Twitter who accused her of not caring for the welfare of Cohen’s mourning family.

“I am not @MissCiku. I haven’t written a book. I never hosted a show named Busted. And I haven’t tweeted anything about dogs. Aki please I was just doing my juice cleanse in peace,” tweeted Ciru Muriuki, whose formal name is Angela Wanjiru Muriuki.