Tribal groupings put on notice

Kenya's cohesion body has warned those mobilising along ethnic political groupings that the law will catch up with them.

The National Cohesion and Reconciliation Commission (NCIC) Tuesday said political tribal alliances would not be tolerated as long as they segregated against other ethnic communities.

NCIC vice chair Mary Onyango told a media briefing in Nairobi that such alliances were already illegal, and the Commission needs not announce their ban.

“The law is there and it is not the Commission coming up with it. It is not for us to keep saying that every time people come up with a debate (on ethnic lines), to say, “don’t go there or don’t do this," she said.

The Commission was reacting to the political group under the KKK alliance, which brings together political leaders from the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin communities ahead of the 2012 General Election.

“While political alliances for the common good are encouraged, alliances along ethnic lines which aim to advance exclusionist policies are unlawful," said Ms Onyango.

The alliance, whose existence has since been denied by the same politicians, as a "creation of the media".

In January, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka wrote to the Commission asking it to ban the usage of the phrase ‘KKK.’

They argued that the use of the acronym amounted to hate-speech, an offence under the National Cohesion and Integration Act.

In the letter addressed to NCIC Chairman Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia titled 'Incessant Contravention of the NCI Act', Mr Musyoka said the KKK tag promoted ethnicism and isolation contrary to the NCI Act, 2008.

“The KKK caricature that now dominates the media and some public pronouncements is designed to depict ethnic isolationism whereby the three communities are set against the rest of Kenya’s ethnic groups,” he added.

Last week Mr Kibunjia told an editors’ meeting that the Commission was still trying to find out the objectives of its creation before judging it.