NAME AND SHAME

Politicians who set tribe against tribe in the referendum campaigns risk being jailed or fined.

The same fate awaits those who abuse and insult others during the constitution debate.

Rules on the referendum campaign are being developed and those who break them could face three years in jail or a fine of Sh1 million.

The rules are intended to ensure that the campaigns are civil and do not lead to ethnic strife.

Ethnic hatred

They are based on the national unity law, called the National Cohesion and Integration Act, which makes it illegal to use threats against opponents, to insult or stir ethnic hatred.

National Cohesion and Integration Commission chairman, Dr Mzalendo Kibunjia, said they will not tolerate abusive language at all.

The commission is an important part of Agenda Four, the set of things the government committed itself to do to avoid a repeat of the polarisation witnessed in the lead up to the last General Election and the post election violence.

Dr Kibunjia said that even though the rules are not published yet, the Act will give direction.

The law says any person who does anything that “involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour commits an offence if such person intends thereby to stir up ethnic hatred, or having regard to all the circumstances, ethnic hatred is likely to be stirred up”.

Dr Kibunjia noted that given such a definition in law, the threshold of proof is not that of “beyond reasonable doubt” as found in the courts of law.

Name and shame

Publications, shows, programmes and even plays which are “insulting or abusive” also fall into this category, Dr Kibunjia said.

“Don’t forget that we also have the power to publish the names of all those people who make inflammatory statements ...we’ll name and shame them,” said Dr Kibunjia.

Speaking at an elders’ conference in Nairobi’s Bomas of Kenya, Dr Kibunjia, set the crusade against hate speech as key in the push for national unity.
He laid out a five-point cohesion agenda to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The coalition leaders asked the elders to shun tribalism and embrace national unity at the grassroots. They also called for tolerance in the referendum debate and asked the elders to popularise the proposed constitution in their communities.

With a tumultuous political season shaping, the cohesion commission is critical in keeping the peace and national unity.

“We have only one country and must learn to watch what we say, because if we burn it, there’s nowhere to go,” the NCIC chairman told the Nation later on the sidelines of the conference.

Apart from the hate speech crusade, the cohesion agenda also focused on the future of the country after the referendum.

“What happens after that? How are the counties going to live together, if we insist that a third of the people employed should not be from one tribe?” Dr Kibunjia posed.

Thus the commission now plans a “Referendum Conference” to forestall any violence, just in case either of the opposing sides emerge from the referendum with violent inclinations.

The impending arrest of suspects of the post-election violence and subsequent hand-over to the International Criminal Court is also a source of jitters to the commission.

Dr Kibunjia argues that there are tribal repercussions to look at once the Hague process is initiated.

Given that most of those who masterminded the fighting are also leaders who derive their political clout from their tribes, the commission has a reason to worry.

The 2012 election and the attendant tribal arithmetic that characterise the country’s polls is also another headache for the commission.