By Geoffrey Mosoku
NAIVASHA, KENYA: The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) says it is not investigating Trade minister Moses Wetangula over claims of propagating hate speech.
NCIC chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia said that the commission was yet to receive a formal complaint from Jubilee presidential aspirant Uhuru Kenyatta who has accused Wetangula of making inflammatory statements against him.
“We have heard those claims but the Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta has not formally written to us. The law unfortunately requires that he (Uhuru) writes to us in order to commence any investigations,” Kibunjia said.
The cohesion boss said that the law ties them down when it comes to probing incidents of hate speech and thus they will wait Uhuru’s letter or a complaint from any other person.
Last week Uhuru’s TNA party claimed that during a Cord rally in Ukambani, Wetangula alleged that Uhuru wants to sell a land which his family is accused of allocating itself, in order to "get money to bribe people to vote for him."
Wetangula is the third principal in the Cord alliance that brings tighter Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
The NCIC boss was speaking in Naivasha on Monday when he opened a two day workshop for the commission’s goodwill ambassadors on peaceful elections.
He revealed that the cohesion team has widened its scope of monitoring hate speech by targeting social media which is now being used to propagate the vice.
Kibunjia told the participants that his officers were about to complete three files which will be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by the end of this week for possible prosecution.
“You will be shocked that some of the suspects are prominent Kenyans who include a captain of a prominent airline,” he said.
Kibunjia also disclosed that the NCIC had received an emergency Sh60 million from treasury to sue in monitoring campaigns with most of the funds being allocated for use to council of elders and peace committee across the various counties.
NCIC has mapped counties such as Tana River, Turkana, West Pokot, Garissa, Mandera, Wajir, Marsabit and Isiolo as hotspots due to recurrent cattle rustling and tribal clashed which appear to be taking a political dimension as the country gears toward elections.
The Commission has further expressed fears that the fragile peace in the country is at risk if candidates will not be willing to accept the results of the general election and that the country may plunge back to the events of 2007 post election violence if various leaders dispute the outcome of the polls.
Also of concerns to the commission is the county politics where some ethnic communities or clans who are majority will tend to exclude the minorities during the elections.
“Will the winners and losers accept the verdict? What will happen to the losers in the counties?” Kibunjia posed while warning that devolution of resources to the counties may be sabotaged by the caliber of leaders who will be elected after parliament moved to scrap academic qualifications for county representatives.
He challenged Interim Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to come out and explain to Kenyans how it plans to handle the announcement of results to ensure that the country remains cohesive in spite of who wins or loses.
