Oscar Sudi let off with warning after grilling over hate speech

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) let off Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi with a warning against hate speech after he was grilled on Thursday.

The interrogation concerned remarks that Mr Sudi issued on March 30 in Cheptiret, Uasin Gishu County, against a section of leaders in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

The NCIC said Mr Sudi issued remarks against a certain community, which it reasoned were derisively condescending and inciting.

NCIC Chief Executive Officer Hassan Mohamed said the politician issued a statement which "crossed the red line", breaching section 62 of the commission's Act.

REMORSE

But Mr Mohamed noted that Mr Sudi "owned up to the statements and apologised" and that "he has consequently been tweeting the apology for the same".

“We acknowledge that the utterances the MP made went overboard with regards to being inciting. We, however, also acknowledge that he has consequently been making efforts to express regret for his wrongs, including owning up to the mistakes and tweeting his apologies."

The commission felt Mr Sudi was remorseful and therefore issued him with a cessation notice; a warning, or a "yellow card", according to Mr Mohamed.

As such, the chief executive said, stringent actions will be taken if the member of parliament repeats the mistake.

He ordered the legislator to stop talk targeting communities.

“The MP has in the past made utterances deemed inciting, but which did not always cross the red-line of our threshold of what is deemed inflammatory," the CEO said.

"However, this last incident wasn’t acceptable. But as a commission, out work is to foster reconciliation and cohesion and not necessarily chastise individuals, especially during times when the country is making headways in building cohesion.

“For now, we will not prefer court proceedings against him but rather continue with conciliation. This will not be the case if it happens again."

SUDI'S DEFENCE

Mr Sudi was earlier summoned by the Kilimani Sub-county Criminal Investigations office to record a statement on the matter.

He explained that his statement did not target the entire community but a few individuals.

Mr Sudi also noted that he apologised before the summons by the NCIC.

“Sometimes as politicians, we tend to be carried away by our utterances and realise later on that we erred in our speeches,” he said.