Machage, Kapondi get reprieve over hate speech case

By WAHOME THUKU

The trial of former Assistant Minister Wilfred Machage and Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi over alleged hate speech may not progress after all.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), which initiated the charges in June last year, is now requesting for withdrawal of the case to pursue alternative ways of dealing with the suspects.

A withdrawal would be an anticlimax for the first prosecution over alleged hate speech in Kenya.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) took over the case from the police prosecution wing on Thursday and informed the court that he was considering the request by the NCIC.

Machage, the Kuria MP and Kapondi were arraigned in court in June last year and charged under the National Cohesion and Integration Act, which Parliament enacted in December 2008 to curb ethnic hatred. Machage faces four counts and Kapondi one count of making hate speech.

Also charged for incitement was Christine Nyaguthia Miller, the widow of former Chief Justice Cecil Miller. The charges arose from speeches they made during the launch of the ‘No’ secretariat, (a forum to campaign against the passage of the new Constitution) at Upper Hill, Nairobi.

Machage is accused of having made four Kiswahili statements targeting the Maasai, Kikuyu and the Luo. Kapondi allegedly uttered words meaning some communities in Trans Nzoia and Bungoma would be forced out if the Constitution was passed.

Mrs Miller is said to have uttered the words: "Kwanini watu wa ‘Yes’ hawajakuja Central? Ni kwa sababu wanajua huko kwetu pale Githunguri tutawapiga na mawe na tuwaambie hapa ni No." (The ‘Yes’ group has not come to Central because they know in Githunguri, we shall stone them and let them know that we support ‘No’). Kenyans voted overwhelmingly for the Constitution last year.

Four witnesses have so far testified including two television journalists who allegedly recorded and broadcast the speeches. The defence team has applied for acquittal of the suspects.

On Thursday, Senior State Counsel Emily Kamau told the trial magistrate Lucy Nyambura that the DPP had received a request from NCIC to withdraw the case.

Request

Ms Kamau said the NCIC was seeking reconciliation after the MPs defence counsel led by lawyer Katwa Kigen approached it.

"The commission is considering other non-prosecutorial alternatives provided in the Act and the DPP is considering the request," she told the court.

The parties were given up to August 16, when they will go back to inform the court on their decision.

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.