Mwakwere facing hate speech charges in court

BY ISAIAH LUCHELI

Environment minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere will be arraigned in court on Thursday to face charges of hate speech in a move that might see him out of Cabinet.

Should the minister fail to stop the charges, he might follow the footsteps of others before him like William Ruto and Henry Kosgey, which would see him in the cold as he fights the case in court.

A Nairobi court has issued summons to have the minister appear before the court after Criminal Investigating Department (CID) police officers applied for them.

Principal Magistrate Peter Ndwiga ordered Mwakwere to appear before him this Thursday to answer charges of hate speech from utterances he made during campaign rallies.

The police have filed charges against Mwakwere over the utterances he made during by-election in his Matuga Constituency.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  KPLC to pay Sh500 million for Nakumatt fire tragedy
• 
  Chebukati left off Court of Appeal judges' shortlist as Isaack Hassan enlisted
• 
  Price cuts: Why State could be taking undue credit
• 
  Strathmore, Kabarak set for global moot race

The High Court in July paved way for the arrest and prosecution of the minister for hate speech after Justice David Majanja dismissed Mwakwere’s petition that sought to block the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from filing charges against him.

Ruling

The judge had said in his ruling that unregulated speech would lead to social and political conflagration.

Mwakwere is alleged to have made a speech, during a by-election campaign in his constituency in July 2010, to the effect that indigenous coastal people have been oppressed by Arabs.

The Environment minister had moved to court to block  Chief Inspector of Police Robert Mabera, Commissioner of Police, NCIC, the Attorney General and the DPP from arresting and prosecuting him.

In the application, Mwakwere stated that in the speech, he was airing his views on the historical injustices suffered by his people, which is a constitutional right guaranteed to him under Article 27 of the Constitution.

Following the enactment of NCIC Act in December 2008, Assistant minister Wilfred Machage and Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi have already been arraigned in court charged with hate speech alongside a businesswoman.

The three were, however, acquitted for lack of evidence.

The Act stipulates that hate speech is punishable by fine or jail or both.

Incitement to violence attracts five years’ imprisonment without the option of a fine.

Under the National Cohesion and Integration Act, making a hate speech that stirs ethnic hatred attracts a maximum Sh1 million fine, or three years in jail or both.