Kalonzo Musyoka ‘ethnic slur’ draws fury

A snide remark by former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka about a journalist’s ethnic background on Thursday drew furious reactions.

Those who watched a live broadcast of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) press conference in Nairobi tore into the former VP, now deputy leader of the opposition alliance after he dismissed a journalist for having a “betraying” name.

Within minutes, the phrase “Someone Tell Kalonzo Musyoka” was “trending” on social media.

And Majority Leader Aden Duale accused the former VP of betraying his standing in the society and demanded that he apologises to the journalist and the media house he works for.

“Mr Kalonzo is supposed to be a national leader, but his actions have shown (otherwise),” Mr Duale told the Nation.

“To profile a journalist on the basis of a community he comes from is unconstitutional and discriminatory.”

The journalist, Mr Kennedy Murithi who reports for Q-TV, had asked the Coalition to explain alternative solutions it had for the “failures” of the ruling Jubilee Coalition. But Mr Musyoka asked the journalist to identify himself and then refused to answer the question.

The conversation went something like this:

Reporter: All you are saying is what is wrong with the government, you are not providing alternative leadership as Cord. You are not saying this is wrong. This is how it should be done.

Kalonzo Musyoka: You know, young man, you are entitled to asking, first I didn’t even get your name.

Reporter: My name is Kennedy Murithi from Nation Media Group.

Kalonzo Musyoka: Thank you Murithi, that name betrays it all, I have nothing else to say. Absolutely, I have nothing to say.

Later, the reporter asked the former VP why he responded the way he did. “I am sorry if I am wrong. We can do this over tea,” Mr Musyoka said.

But Twitter continued to boil over his comments. The Cord leader issued a clarification:

“I in no way intended to neither demean the young man, nor do I harbour any animosity toward him. To the contrary I have tirelessly worked for cohesion in this country and in my lifetime supported many leaders from various communities to include the Kalenjin, Luo, Kikuyu, Coast and this is common knowledge.”

Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba had earlier explained that the question Murithi had asked had already been responded to.