NCIC must act to end hate speech

Monday, 04 April 2011 00:04 BY THE EDITOR

Utterances by protagonists in the run-up to the 2007 elections have been cited as having contributed to the violence that broke out following the disputed presidential results.
Then as now, the statements were being made from public podiums by politicians who, immediately the violence started, were silent hoping the police and security agencies would restore the peace their utterances had disrupted.
But when the violence went out of hand and thousands were displaced and killed, the same politicians came out to speak against the violence and presented themselves as "saviours" to their communities.
Once again the hate speech and incitement that coloured the 2007 election campaigns has started. Instead of waiting until the inevitable violent confrontations occur, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission should act.
 It should prosecute those making utterances that are exciting hate against individuals and or communities as well as inciting people to ‘defend’ themselves against rivals the leaders declared enemies.
The security intelligence services and the Attorney General must act to reign in the inciters, irrespective of their position in society. Only then can Kenyans start believing that the dragon of impunity can be slayed.

 Quote of the day: A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus,” Martin Luther King Jr, the iconic US civil rights activist who in 1964 became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending racial segregation and discrimination through civil disobedience and other non violent means. He was assassinated on April 4,1968 in Memphis Tennessee and a federal holiday in his honour was established in 1986.