Two Kenyans may be jailed for up to five years for sending digital messages deemed to potentially incite violence ahead of the country’s general elections.
One of the accused is said to have repeatedly used 'vulgar and highly ethnic inflammatory mobile texts' to members of an ethnic community, according to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC): a statutory body formed to monitor hate speech in the country.
The other is a journalist in a local media house, who has allegedly been propagating hatred among members of a different community on blogs and websites.
The NCIC says it has already gathered enough evidence to take the two to court and that it is preparing to file more hate speech related cases.
Kenya’s hate speech law, The National Cohesion and Integration Act 2008, provides for fines or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years to anyone 'who utters words intended to incite feelings of contempt, hatred, hostility, violence or discrimination against any person, group or community on the basis of ethnicity or race.
The Act came into existence following the post election violence of 2007 regarding disputed presidential vote result.
“We are not out on a witch hunt but rather to investigate complaints from the public,” said National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) Assistant Director (complaints, legal and enforcement) Kyalo Mwengi.
“You must have done something for us to narrow down on you,” Mwengi added.
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