By Isaiah Lucheli

Environment Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere appears before a Nairobi court to face charges of hate speech in a case that could have far-reaching ramifications on his political career.

The flamboyant legislator’s ministerial portfolio now hangs in the balance as the High Court set August 15 as the date to hear his application to stop his arrest and prosecution.

An attempt by the Matuga MP to block the case through the High Court collapsed after the judge, Lady Justice Florence Muchemi, declined to grant his request.

Precedence was set where ministers formally charged in court with criminal offences resigned until the case was concluded.

Victims of the precedence include former Agriculture minister William Ruto, his Industrialisation counterpart, Henry Kosgey, and Assistant ministers Wilfred Machage and James Gesami.

Another legislator, Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu, escaped by a whisker from being charged by a lower court after he obtained orders in the High Court blocking his prosecution.

The Matuga MP had sought to have the magistrate’s court stopped from prosecuting him because he had filed a notice of appeal against the ruling by Justice David Majanja thrown out his petition and paving way for his arrest and prosecution.

The minister had claimed that his right to access justice under the Constitution would be severely prejudiced and grossly violated if he faced charges for expressing himself about the injustices suffered by the people at the Coast.

He added that following the ruling by Justice Majanja the Director of Public Prosecutions ordered the Commissioner of Police and the National Cohesion and Integration to Commission (NCIC) to arrest and charge him, whereas he had been agitating against historical injustices the people of the coast region had suffered.

Historical injustices

“The matters which the petitioner is alleged to have uttered have been a subject of public and open debate regarding the alleged marginalisation and historical injustices perpetrated against the people who up to date suffer from decades of denial of access to land rights and face exploitation,” reads the petition in part.

The minister added that the historical injustice were a matter of constitutional application in court involving the Mombasa Republican Council, and the court ruled that they have a constitutional right to agitate for remedial measures for the alleged historical injustices.

A Nairobi magistrate court issued summons to have the minister appear before the court after Criminal Investigations Department police officers applied for summons.

Principal Magistrate Peter Ndwiga ordered Mwakwere to appear before him today to answer charges of hate speech following utterances he allegedly made in campaign rallies.

The police have filed charges against the Matuga MP over the utterances he allegedly made during the by election in his Matuga constituency, which he won. The High Court in July paved way for the arrest and prosecution of the minister for hate speech after Justice David Majanja dismissed his attempt to block the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from filing charges against him.

After the enactment of the NCIC Act in December 2008, Sssistant Minister Wilfred Machage and Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi were 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 a fine or jail or both.

And the expected trial of Mwakwere is raising heat in Coast Province with his political allies rallying to his defence.

They have criticised NCIC, which has leveled hate charges against Mwakwere, and also alleged that mining investors have joined an alleged conspiracy against the Matuga MP.

 “We are saddened by the sudden twist of events branding Mwakwere as a hate monger. He is an accommodative leader leading a constituency, which is cosmopolitan,’’ Miji Kenda Council of Elders secretary general, Vincent Mwachiro, said at a media briefing this week.

A lecturer at Pwani University in Kilifi, Owen Baya told The Standard on Wednesday: “Mwakwere is being charged for stating a historical problem and he must not be punished.”

Dr Baya said trying the minister is like putting the Miji Kenda community on trial because Mwakwere stated historical facts.

Baya also argued that ethnic Miji Kenda and Arabs have coexisted peacefully despite the problems, but the NCIC is trying to stalk tensions between them.

Challenge charges

“The worst thing that the NCIC is doing is to try and open a wound that has been there before and has never healed,” he added.

But Baya said he does not support impunity in anyway and added that the minister’s alleged speech against the Arab community in Coast Province ought to have been interpreted in a wider context.

In the last few days over 100 kaya elders dressed in the ceremonial regalia have attended a press briefing held at the Sapphire Hotel, Mombasa County to challenge the hate speech charges.

Mwakwere’s political aide, Mwalimu Digore wondered why the NCIC was going ahead with preferring hate speech charges at this time.

He claimed early that at a previous political rally presided over by the late Internal Security minister, Prof George Saitoti at the height of the Matuga by-elections in 2010, Mwakwere disapproved attempts to marginalise a certain ethnic group.

“In the presence of the late Saitoti, Mwakwere expressed his utter frustrations at the unfolding events. Saitoti in his wise esteem did not disapprove of what Mwakwere had said then,’’ Digore said.

He urged the DPP, Keriako Tobiko, to save Mwakwere from any possible prosecution.

The leaders alleged that the charges against Mwakwere’s arose from the fact that he has fought to end the land injustice prevalent at the Coast.

–Additional reporting by Ngumbao Kithi and Philip Mwakio