NCIC Wants Political Leaders Implicated In Hatespeech Banned From Contesting In 2022

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) now wants the relevant laws amended to prevent political aspirants implicated in war mongering from contesting in the 2022 general election.

Addressing the press in Garissa town Wednesday, NCIC commissioner Wambui Nyutu, said that the commission was working with other relevant institutions among them IEBC to identify the relevant laws to be amended so that current politicians and aspiring candidates implicated in war mongering are stopped from contesting.

Nyutu said that the amendment will ensure that all the aspirants will be subjected to thorough vetting before they are cleared to contest.

“The current political leaders have formed a habit of inciting Kenyans with their utterances and getting away with it but they know that the law will eventually catch up with them and they only have themselves to blame,” Nyutu said.

She said that the culprits are using the courts to get bail and drag their cases to delay justice with the hope of escaping punishment.

“As a commission we have noted with great concern the current trend by our politicians and it is for this reason that we want to do things differently because as it stands the political class think they will use the justice system to get away with the ‘sins’,” she added.

The proposal is however likely to face strong resistance in Parliament from the politicians who will fall victim and given that they will in one way or another be involved in passing it.

Nyutu however said that they were alive to that fact and called on party leaders to whip their members into supporting the amendments which she said was good for the country.

Commissioner Sam Kona on his part said that wananchi have an even greater role to play in ensuring that there is not only peace but by also voting out war mongers and inciters.

“I want to challenge Kenyans to stop this habit of cheering politicians who take to the podium and all they do is to incite them into violence. This culture must stop,” Kona said.

“These utterances may at the face value look like they don’t mean a lot but it is a dangerous trend that can make a state plunge into chaos and fail,” Kona said.

He said that although Garissa was calm, the border dispute between it and Tana River and Isiolo counties should be resolved because it can result in conflicts as has been witnessed in the past.

“We are concerned as a commission over the protracted border disputes between Garissa and these two counties of Isiolo and Tana River. There is also another dispute brewing between Tana River and Kitui. We are working on how best these disputes can be resolved once and for all,” Kona noted.

In the past two weeks, the political temperatures in the country has been heightened with Kenyans expressing concerns that it was not good for the country ahead of the 2022 elections.

Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi and his Emuru Dikir MP Johana Ngeno are the latest politicians to be arrested and charged for incitement.