Nairobi — The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Party has written to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) demanding the suspension of the Twitter accounts of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and Suna East Member of Parliament Junet Mohamed for allegedly sharing inciting content on their platform.
The party’s Secretary General Veronica Maina petitioned the peace-building agency after Joho and Junet shared a manipulated video of Deputy President William Ruto suggesting that he was spreading hate speech when he campaigned in Uasin Gishu County on August 1, 2022.
“This video is a choreographed version intended to cause, elicit and spread hate, incitement to violence, ethnic discrimination, and disharmony. The video has also been intentionally edited with a deliberate aim and objective to cause ethnic hatred, fear and intolerance during this peak political season,” Maina said.
Joho and Junet have since pulled down the videos from their timeliness.
During the Uasin Gishu tour, Ruto stated that the region was accommodative and that no person should feel out of place as Kenya heads to the polls next week.
In the letter, Maina copied the Director General of Communications Authority Ezra Chiloba and Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati.
“The deceptive and edited videos have caused and will continue to cause hate, spread paranoia, and incite violence against ethnic communities in the country,” Maina said.
The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji on Wednesday directed the Inspector General of Police to launch a probe on doctored clips in the country.
The NCIC is an independent ethnic cohesion watchdog set up after the 2007-8 post-election violence that left more than 1,000 people dead.
It does not have the power to suspend Facebook but can make recommendations to the government’s Communications Authority.
NCIC on July 29, 2022, threatened to recommend the suspension of Facebook for violating hate speech guidelines in the country.
The government has however insisted that social media and the internet will not be shut down during next Tuesday’s General Election.