Send cohesion team home, says senator

Senate Deputy Speaker Kembi Gitura wants the National Cohesion and Integration Commission disbanded for “failure to curb the spread of hatred and ethnicity in the country”.

He accused the commission of failure to fulfil its mandate despite being in existence for a long time.

Mr Gitura, who is also the Murang’a senator, said the team should have put measures in place to ensure Kenyans live in harmony.

“I haven’t seen any work that NCIC has been doing. They only come up when other arms of government rise up to deal with issues of hate speech,” said the senator. "The commission talks too much, says many things by issuing threats against perpetrators of hatred but with very little action.”

He said the recent arrest of eight political leaders over alleged hate speech, was a clear indication that the commission engaged in reactionary measures to situations.

“I believe the commissioners would have acted early enough and not being reactionary. One of the biggest problems we have as a country is we react to situations instead of being proactive,” he observed.

Speaking at Mukangu Secondary School in Murang’a County, he said the reckless statements made by leaders could result in a cycle of violence during elections and needed to be firmly dealt with.

He said the government should not allow people to make inflammatory statements without any sanctions or consequences to it.

Mr Gitura added that if Mr Francis ole Kaparo and his team were serious and aggressive enough, then such incidents would not have been witnessed.

“If we want to build one nation, one people devoid of tribe, racism or anything that divides us then we should not support anyone who crosses ethnic lines. Let them carry their own cross,” he remarked.

He urged Kenyans not perpetrate hatred and other vices saying this would help to prevent the country from lapsing into chaos.