Cabinet ministers summoned over tribal comments

Two Cabinet ministers, two senior politicians and a prominent personality are the first five people to answer summons for hate speech under a new law passed last year. They were called in — some last week — by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission to explain their use of inciting language in public and to show cause why they should not be prosecuted.

The commission chairman Dr Mzalendo Kibunja said in an interview the remarks made in public were deemed to be tribal and inciting. However, he declined to name the senior figures, saying the commission is pursuing a non-confrontational approach to achieve cohesion.

According to him, a provoking approach could make those summoned go defensive and become uncooperative. The commission, he adds, has chosen to be an honest broker of peace where people and communities can present their cases and avoid fighting.

“We are using alternative conflict resolution methods. When one makes hate speech, we call that person and explain why that is not good for a leader in a nation that is seeking cohesiveness,” Dr Kibunja said.

Found guilty

Nonetheless, Section 62 of the National Cohesion and Integration Act, which established the commission, provides for a fine of up to Sh1 million or five years imprisonment or both to those found guilty. Section 62 (1) of the Act is explicit that any person who utters words intended to incite feelings of contempt, hatred, hostility, violence or discrimination against any person, group or community on the basis of ethnicity or race, commits an offence.

The second part of that section provides that a newspaper, radio station or media enterprise that publishes such utterances commits an offence and shall, too, be liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding Sh1 million.

In his conversation with the Saturday Nation, Dr Kibunja describes inciting remarks as those that could create tension between or among ethnic communities across the country. “Any statement that pits one community against the other or considers one community as not part of Kenya amounts to incitement,” he says.

The commission was established pursuant to the National Cohesion and Integration Act published in December 2008. President Kibaki, in pursuant to section 17 (4) of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission Act 2008, appointed its commissioners on September 10 last year for a three-year term.

Dr Kibunja told Saturday Nation that in case a party ignores summons, the law allows the commission to seek a warrant of arrest from a magistrate’s court. “We could recommend such a party to the Attorney General for prosecution,” Dr Kibunjia said.

Concerning the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants and the profiling of Somali-owned businesses, the commission this week met members of the Eastleigh business community and later the Internal Security permanent secretary in a bid to bring the two parties to a roundtable for negotiations.

Ethnic violence

Addressing the seemingly perennial occurrence of ethnic violence around electioneering time, the cohesion chairman blames it all on leadership. He says politicians need a code of conduct during elections. “Our leaders do not have national values. Most of them are not ready to unite Kenyans. We need to move away from age-old leaders who still harbour stereotypes about certain communities.”

Interestingly, the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution that has just concluded its Naivasha retreat is said to have deleted a chapter on national values from the draft law, and the committee has not denied that.

But that is not what worries Dr Kibunja the most. He takes issue with the government’s slow pace at implementing Agenda Four reforms, which directly affect the success of his commission. “The agreed reforms must be accelerated,” he said.

Dr Kibunja cautions that any rush to solve issues facing Kenyans could easily create bigger problems.“Take the example of what happened with people displaced by post-election violence; relocating displaced Kisii’s from Kericho to Nyamira, Kikuyus from Burnt Forest to Naivasha, Luos from Nyeri to Kisumu and Kalenjins from Limuru to Eldoret is a recipe for disaster!”

He described the decision as “not well thought out.” “I know time is of essence for reform, but we have to seriously think through the process,” he says. From next week, the commission has outlined a month-long cohesion campaign to culminate on February 28, a day when two years ago, a National Accord that ended the post-election violence was signed.

“We feel that the day showed a cohesive nation where two warring parties shook hands and ended their animosity,” he says. If everything goes according to plan, Dr Kibunja says, the commission will have the two principals, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, address the nation together live from a yet to be picked venue.

Asked how his commission intends to reach out to the grassroots, Dr Kibunja blames it all on the resources: “We only have nine commissioners and five support staff. Much as we would want to have our presence on the hot-spots, we need funds to employ more people.”

Baseline survey

However, the chairman is optimistic that after this year’s budget, where he hopes to get over Sh500 million up from the Sh102 million he got last year, Kenyans should be able to feel their work on the ground. Dr Kibunja has in the meantime commissioned a baseline survey on ethnicity, race and religion in the country.

The Kibunja-led commission was created to address the post-election crisis and underlying issues that triggered it as well as provide a mechanism for addressing, on a continuing basis, the ethnic conflicts which are part and parcel of a multi-ethnic and plural society.

skumba@ke.nationmedia.com