Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria denies inciting violence, says his account was hacked

Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria says a parody Facebook account was used to post incitement words.

Kuria, who was defending himself against incitement charges before Senior Principal Magistrate Theresa Nyangene, denied inciting ethnic hatred through a message on social media, saying his account could have either been hacked or a parody account opened to tarnish his name.

"I have never posted incitement to violence words on Facebook and may be someone else hacked my account," said Kuria.

Kuria yesterday told the court that he has never been investigated over the incitement to violence case, saying he was only called by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to have a chat on how to handle the matter.

To further distance himself from the racist claims, Kuria told the court that he had many friends from the Luo community and thus could not have harbour negative ethnic feelings against them.

The MP said none of the witnesses was able to distinguish between his accounts or any other accounts opened by his "well-wishers".

According to him, he used to interact with public through media forums. He added that there is no community in Kenya by the name Odhiambo's as alleged by the prosecution.

"No one from Facebook has ever come to court to testify as a witness in the case," noted Kuria.

"On many occasions I have asked the fake Kurias to close down the fake accounts but each time one was closed ten more were opened using the same name," he said.The legislator however admitted that he had never reported the fake accounts to the police or to Facebook.

His lawyer Danson Mungatana said the prosecution had failed to prove incitements to violence charges against Kuria.

Mungatana said there was no sufficient evidence to sustain conviction in all the counts since the particulars on the prosecution charge sheet are dependent on Facebook.

"There was no evidence submitted officially from the owners of Facebook or the representative to own the statements," said Mungatana.

The Law Society of Kenya had complained that Kuria had uploaded a series of inciting messages targeting a particular community.

National Cohesion and Integration Commission recommended his prosecution. Ruling will be delivered on December 9.