CS Magoha under fire for allegedly profiling Muslim journalist

Muslim leaders have called for the sacking of Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha for profiling a female Muslim NTV journalist during a media briefing in Nairobi last week.

Led by Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslim (Supkem) chairman Alhajj Hassan Ole Naado, the leaders accused Prof Magoha of discriminating against the journalist based on her religion and profiling her as an agent of an outlawed terrorist organisation.

“The consequences of this profiling from a leader of the CS’s stature undermines the constitutional and human rights, religion, human dignity and press freedom. The utterances exposed the lady and all Muslim girls and women to danger,” said Mr Ole Naado.

He also called on the National Cohesion and Integration Commission to punish the CS and urged the Media Council of Kenya to follow up on the issue with President Uhuru Kenyatta so that Prof Magoha could be relieved of his duties.

Harmonious coexistence

“It is very unfortunate that these utterances are coming in this tense election season at a time when the country needs a call for peace and harmonious coexistence of communities,” added Mr Ole Naado.

He was flanked by Muslim Women Caucus official Fauzia Hassan, Association of Muslim Lawyers in Kenya chairperson Khadija Mohamed and Muslim Media Practitioners of Kenya chairman Juma Namlola. National Muslim Leaders Forum (Namlef) vice-chairman Al-Hajj Yusuf Murigu was also present.

Ms Hassan called out Prof Magoha for criticising Muslim attire and profiling Islam and demanded respect for the religion.

“As Muslim women, we have suffered silently for long but we must stand up so that this kind of treatment can end. This shouldn’t have come from a CS,” she said.

Unwarranted and very devastating

“Magoha’s comments were unwarranted and very devastating. As a CS, he should be preaching unity. He insinuated the lady was representing a terrorist group,” Ms Mohamed said.

Prof Magoha castigated the female journalist during a function at Pumwani Girls and Pumwani Boys secondary schools in Nairobi after he laid a foundation stone for the second phase of the building of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) junior high classrooms.

Instead of responding to the question asked by the journalist, the CS demanded to know which media house she represented and then made the remarks that were deemed to have profiled the reporter, namely associating her with a terrorist group.