Editor's Review
Jubilee Party has called on NCIC to investigate remarks attributed to Nominated MP Joseph Wainaina, warning that such statements could threaten national cohesion.
Jubilee Party has called on the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to investigate remarks attributed to Nominated MP Joseph Wainaina, warning that such statements could threaten national cohesion.
In a statement on Monday, August 31, Jubilee Secretary General Moitalel Ole Kenta said Kenya must not repeat the events surrounding the 2007/08 post-election violence.
He argued that political rhetoric that targets communities or questions the right of Kenyans to live in particular parts of the country must be addressed before it escalates.
"Fellow Kenyans, our country has been here before. In 2007/08, Kenya descended into a period of violence that left over a thousand of our countrymen and women dead, hundreds of thousands displaced, and communities that had lived side by side for generations turned against one another in the name of politics. We buried our people, we counted our losses, and as a nation we made a solemn vow, Never Again," the statement read.
Ole Kenta noted that telling Kenyans to leave an area because of their political choices amounted to exclusionary rhetoric that could have serious consequences if allowed to take root.
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"We say this without equivocation, this is the exact language of exclusion that has, in the past, preceded some of the darkest chapters in our nation's history.
"To suggest, even in jest or in the heat of political mobilization, that any Kenyan does not belong in a part of their own country because of how they vote or where their political loyalties lie, is to plant a seed that this country cannot afford to let take root again," the statement added.
Ole Kenta further warned that such statements should not be regarded as ordinary political mobilisation, insisting that leaders across all levels of government should be held to standards that protect national unity.
"We call out this kind of politics for what it is, it is not leadership. It is not campaign mobilization. It is incitement dressed up in the language of political loyalty, and it has no place in our public discourse, not from a backbencher, not from a governor, not from a Member of Parliament, and certainly not from anyone who sits in the National Assembly," the statement further read.
Ole Kenta challenged the NCIC to take action over the remarks, saying the commission was established to address rhetoric that could undermine cohesion and calling for investigations and prosecution where applicable.
"We call upon the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to do its job. The Commission was established precisely to guard against this kind of rhetoric. It cannot afford to be a toothless bystander while public figures test the limits of what incites hatred among our people.
"We demand that the NCIC formally investigate these remarks, and where the law has been broken, that it acts swiftly, transparently, and without fear or favor. We further call on the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to be alive to their constitutional mandate," the statement concluded.
Speaking in a video widely circulated on Sunday, August 30, Wainaina urged members of his community in the Rift Valley to remain united in support of President William Ruto’s two-term bid, warning that those opposed to the political arrangement should leave the region.
"If you do not want the two-term arrangement here, leave peacefully and come back after we finish the election," he said.
Wainaina said members of his community would politically distance themselves from those in the Rift Valley and Central Kenya advocating for a one-term presidency.
"We will separate ourselves from those who are saying one term in central Kenya because we are two-term people," he added.
