Tough hate speech proposals languish on shelf as campaigns heat up

Tough proposals to curb hate speech are yet to be considered by the National Assembly even as Kenya enters the campaign period when such utterances multiply.

The Administration and National Security Committee had proposed several additions to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) Act in February last year.

Among them is raising prison terms for offenders from the current maximum of five years to a minimum of five and a high of 20 years and a low fine of Sh1 million.

At a meeting in Mombasa between lawmakers and NCIC, the two sides also agreed to ensure that hate speech cases are completed within six months.

Another proposal is that offenders cease holding public office until their cases are determined. And if found guilty, they will be permanently barred from holding any public office.

Lawmakers also agreed to entrench a proposal seeking to make it an offence to disobey a summons from NCIC, a move aimed at making the agency more powerful in discharging its mandate.

But almost one year after the proposals were put forward, little progress has been made in adopting them, with lawmakers blaming NCIC for the delays.

Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma, a member of the committee, told the Nation yesterday that the panel had approved all the proposals and NCIC was to refine them but never reported back.

Heavier penalties for hate-mongers

Mr Kaluma, who led a sub-committee that included the legal team from the NCIC that was to come up with amendments, said the matter was with the cohesion committee.

“We approved all the amendments and prescribed even heavier penalties for hate-mongers. NCIC was to input the aggravated amendments and return the legislative proposals to be published,” he said.

“We have not heard from them since. I hear they have chosen to transact the bill through the Committee on Equal Opportunities. We wish them well.”

But NCIC commissioner Danvas Makori told the Nation that they adopted all the measures that the security committee proposed but decided to merge them with another bill that was also in the Senate.

“Since the Senate also had another bill on NCIC, we decided to consult them for concurrence so that we have one bill containing all the amendments to be considered by the National Assembly,” Dr Makori said.

He said NCIC met with the Speakers of the National Assembly and the Senate on the bill and they approved it.

Maina Kamanda, the chairman of the National Cohesion and Integration Committee, told that Nation that they had dispensed with the matter and were waiting for the proposals to be considered by the House.

Linturi's inflammatory remarks 

“We had given the Speaker and the House Business Committee the proposals to schedule it in the Order Paper for debate. It is one of the agenda listed for consideration when the House resumes its sittings,” Mr Kamanda said.

“This is something that the House can debate on within a day and pass it.”

As 2022 campaigns gather steam, it is expected that more and more politicians will find themselves on the wrong side of the law due to their loose tongues.

In one of the most recent cases, Meru Senator Mithika Linturi was arrested for questioning after making inflammatory remarks at a rally in Uasin Gishu County on Saturday.

Under Section 96 of the Penal Code offenders found guilty of propagating hate speech are liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years

But lack of clarity on how digital evidence can be admitted as evidence continues to hobble prosecutors in nailing suspects.

A review of past hate speech cases shows that most of them were dropped due to lack of evidence. Others failed because prosecutors were unable to produce witnesses, especially if inflammatory statements became public through videos picked up from the internet.

Some of the accused walked out of courts free after challenging the constitutionality of the very law that makes it a criminal offence to spew ethnic hatred.

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