From: People For Peace

Voices of Justice for Peace
Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2012

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission Chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia wants three popular musicians Muigai wa Njoroge, Kamande wa Kioi and John Demathew be investigated for hate speech and inciteful.

[images]Inset- musicians Kamande wa Kioi- John De’Mathew- Muigai Njoroge/ File

Wa Njoroge is to be investigated for his Hague Bound song presented as a question and answer narrative where he asks: What if you knew that you are being pushed to the Hague by an uncircumcised man who wants to push you there and take over your wife and all your wealth? A man who can do anything to ensure you are in problems.

The answer to his question is that better to die. Things for men are not governed by an uncircumcised man. I would kill him. Its better they increase my charges”. He believes Uhuru Kenyatta has been taken to the Hague by uncircumcised individual.

He wonders what you would tell your crying supporters as you are being shipped to the Hague? The answer: I would tell them to pray for me and know I am being persecuted for my love of my community.

Question: When you get to Hague how you would ensure the white man does not cheat you? Answer: I would ask for proceedings to be done in Kikuyu. Question: When on the dock what would you be thinking of the uncircumcised man who is the source of your predicament? Answer: I would ask God to forgive him. I would also ask that he gets circumcised so that he matures mentally. I would also ask Kenyans to be very wary of that man.

The song says Uhuru is the Moses of the Kikuyu nation, who is meant to move Kikuyus from Egypt to Canaan, anointed by God, poured oil on. The song says Philistines who do not circumcise cannot lead Israel. When Abraham stressed God, he was told to go get cut, even you General of Migingo, your knife is being sharpened.”

The contentious songs according to Kibunjia include ‘Mwaka wa Hiti’ loosely translated as year of the hyena by John DeMathew, Muigai wa Njoroge’s ‘Hague bound’ and ‘Uhuru ni Witu’ (Uhuru is ours) by Kamande wa Kioi.

If they found guilty of hate speech, they will be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or a fine of Sh1 million or both. A radio station that plays the music would also be liable to a fine not exceeding Sh1 million according to the Act.

This is not the first time the issue of uncircumcised cannot rule Keny and hate speech has emerged. The former Finance minister Simeon Nyachae once said that Raila Odinga could not govern Kenya since he is not circumcised.
WHY BOTH RAILAPHOBIA AND RAILAPHILIA ARE UNTENABLE
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?id=%202000029280&cid=4&story=Raila%20accused%20of%20hate%20speech%20against%20Mt%20Kenya%20residents&articleID=2000029280

William Ruto in a bid to convince Raila to leave the ODM ticket to Kalonzo Musyoka echoed the same sentiment. “A Luo cannot win presidential election in Kenya”, Ruto said. Upon such utterances, it was reported that Raila broke down in tears; as we have made to understand, his tears are never too far from the surface.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta also insulted Raila based on circumcision by saying, “they think Kibaki is uncircumcised like them” he said in Kikuyu. Joshua Kutuny also refered to Raila saying “Shetani ameingia kwa speaker na huyo shetani ni “O”. He went further in explaining the origin of KKK alliance saying that they started KKK alliance to open Kibaki´s door since “O” had mistreated them.

On the run up to taking the hague bound flights in prayer meeting PNU Chief Whip Johnstone Muthama, who employed a variety of rhetorical devices said, “We’re going to the polls next year and we are going to send him (Raila) back home to fish,”?I don’t have to tell you that in Kenya we know people by their names so when Kutuny says “O” had mistreated them, it can mean only Raila but also Luos as a whole, the uncircumcised, those who eat fish.

When Raila stood against Safaricom IPO the then Finance minister Amos Kimunya said, “This is not a “fish market”; it’s a stock market, referring to the usual Kenyan stereotypes that Kikuyus are investors (stock market) while Luos are only prominent in the fish industry (fish market).

Raila has nor been spared either. He has been accused by the Party of National Unity of propagating a hate campaign against the Mt Kenya people. Party Deputy Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni said the Premier had hatched a plot to create a wedge between Mt Kenya people and the rest of Kenyans.

Kioni who is also the Ndaragwa MP had demanded that the National Cohesion and Integration Commission investigate Raila over claims he allegedly made in Wajir that people from Mt Kenya region perpetrated the Wagalla massacre
Raila accused of hate speech against Mt Kenya residents – Move It!
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?id=%202000029280&cid=4&story=Raila%20accused%20of%20hate%20speech%20against%20Mt%20Kenya%20residents&articleID=2000029280

Kibunja has also proposed that Facebook and Twitter users in Kenya who post material passing as hate speech and incitement to violence could be arrested and charged in court of law. He says he would work with the police on monitoring materials posted on Facebook and Twitter by individuals and organisations.

Generally, hate speech is that which offends, threatens or insults groups based on race, colour, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability or a number of other traits.

KNCHR defines hate speech as any form of speech that degrades others and promotes hatred and encourages violence against a group on the basis of a criteria including religion, race, colour or ethnicity. It includes speech, publication or broadcast that represents as inherently inferior.

In media hate speech is defined as a tool that encourages violent activities ,tension or hatred between races, ethnic or social groups, or countries for political goals /or to foster conflict by offering one-sided and biased views and opinions and resorting to deception.

It was used to fuel hatred in Rwanda …”it should be stressed that people must bring matchettes, a spear ,an arrow ,a hoe, spades, rakes, nails, truncheons..Barbed wire, stones …and the like, in order, dear listeners to kill the Rwandan Tutsis” that was a Rwandese ethnic radio station calling on the Hutus to kill the Tutsis.

In Kenya former Assistant Minister and Kuria Member of Parliament Wilfred Machage, his Mt.Elgon Counterpart Fred Kapondi and Christine Nyaguthi Miller the Widow of former Chief Justice Cecil Miller were accused for hate speech.

Machage was accused of making four Kiswahili statements targeting the Maasai, Kikuyu and the Luo, while Kapondi allegedly threatened that communities in Trans Nzoia and Bungoma would be kicked out, it meant that they wanted violence and terror reigned on the said tribes. The court set them free for lack of evidence.

According to Section 44 of the Penal Code any person who, without lawful authority, carries on, or makes preparation for carrying on, or aids in or advises the carrying on of, or preparation for, any war or warlike undertaking with, for, by or against any person or body or group of persons in Kenya, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for life.

In Kenya this law cannot work as yet since majority of Kenyans who have been implicated are politically protected, especially a number of Ministers and MPs who either belong to Kibaki’s PNU or Raila’s ODM camps.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
People for Peace in Africa
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578

E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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