Suspend Joho, Junet's Twitter accounts, UDA asks NCIC

Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.

The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party is calling for the suspension of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed's Twitter accounts for allegedly sharing disinformation.

This comes hours after the two leaders, who belong to Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party, shared a manipulated video of Deputy President William Ruto.

The duo had pulled down the videos from their timelines as of the time of publishing this story.

In a letter to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) chairperson Samuel Kobia, UDA's Secretary-General Veronica Maina wants Junet and Joho compelled to acknowledge they deliberately deceived Kenyans.

"We implore [upon] your office to act immediately and take action with a view to take down the unlawful videos as well as suspend the respective accounts propagating hate speech," said Maina.

The letter has also been copied to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Joho and Junet had posted a video which had been manipulated to suggest Ruto was spreading hate during his campaign in Uasin Gishu County on Monday, August 1.

In his message at the rally, DP Ruto said Uasin Gishu County and the larger Rift Valley region was open to accommodating all members of the different Kenyan communities, and that no person should feel out of place as Kenya heads to the polls next week.

Social media platforms have been encouraged to flag hate content to avert violence escalation during the August 9 General Election.

Last week, NCIC gave an ultimatum to Facebook for allegedly failing to filter hate messages on its platform.

The commission said should Facebook fail to stick to anti-hate guidelines, then the social networking site might be suspended from Kenya.

However, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i and his ICT counterpart Joe Mucheru dismissed NCIC's proposal, saying the government will not infringe on the people's right to expression.