Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) has disclosed they are in the final stages of investigating four individuals for social media hate speech and incitement, before instituting the prosecution process.
Mzalendo Kibunjia, NCIC chairperson, said this while speaking to journalists in Nairobi, saying that this will serve as a lesson to others engaging in the social vice.
“We hope that the prosecution of those individuals will send a strong message against hate-mongers on social media,” he said. “There are millions of users and dealing with a few criminals will go a long way in bringing down the hate and criminal behavior online.”
Kibunjia did not however, reveal the identity of the four persons under investigation, but said that they will be arrested and charged as soon as investigations were completed.
Hate speech perpetrated on Kenyan social media has now almost become the norm and citizens are concerned with the trend that it is taking, especially after the March 4 elections.
NCIS called on leaders of the two sides of the election, Jubilee and Cord, to refrain from making inflammatory statements on the elections outcomes, saying that this could take the country back to what was witnessed during the 2007 post-election violence.
Several warnings against social media hate speech by the Kenyan government through the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) seem to have fallen on deaf ears, as social media users openly engage in the vice.
This led to one TV station, Nation Television (NTV), to take the bold move in naming and shaming some Kenyans who are actively involving themselves with hate speech on social media.
Despite the elections having taken place more than two weeks ago, no reports have been received of hate speech mongers being arrested and charged, apart from CCK reassuring that it will carry out an audit of those who spread hate speech through mobile phones and social media during the election period and prosecute them.
