NCIC has rejected the criticism. It argues that Itumbi and Alai habitually court media attention and that they might have deliberately spread hate speech so as to keep themselves in the public eye.
Section 13 of the law establishing the NCIC makes it illegal to use threatening, abusive or insulting words, acts or materials liable to stir up ethnic hatred. Section 62 outlaws speech intended to incite feelings of contempt, hatred, hostility, violence or discrimination against any person, group or community on the basis of ethnicity or race.
Under the law, offenders can be given a three-year prison term, a fine of up to one million Kenyan shillings, 10,000 US dollars, or both.
Enduring Ethnic Divisions
Activity on social media sites demonstrate that five years on, the ethnic tensions played out in the violence after the 2007 elections have not gone away. Back then, members of Kenya’s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu, were in conflict with Kalenjins and Luos.
One post on a Facebook page entitled “NOT Another Kikuyu President Please”, which got over 3,000 “likes”, show that these animosities persist.
“Uhuru (Kenyatta) is President? Luos will have their dicks chopped off and Kalenjins will not be safe in their land no matter what. Pretend but it is the sad truth,” an individual posted on March 9, five days after the presidential election, which Kenyatta won. His running-mate William Ruto – a Kalenjin – became deputy president.
According to Umati, the page has been reported to the NCIC and the Kenyan police but is still active. Kyalo Mwendi, NCIC’s assistant director for legal matters and complaints, told IWPR that Facebook had turned down a request from his office to get the page taken down.
Another Facebook page called “ODM Youth2012” includes comments calling for violence unless Kenya’s Supreme Court upheld a challenge lodged by Raila Odinga, the Orange Democratic Movement’s candidate.
Odinga, whose election bid was backed by the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy, CORD, claimed that the outcome was invalid because of alleged irregularities in the voting and counting processes.
“What if the court doesn’t rule in favour of Cord, will you just seat (sic) there and mourn? The other way we can take this thing is by force? Let’s distabalise (sic) the county…. R you Ready?” reads one post by a user named Mathew Omondi Mola.
One Facebook user who spoke to IWPR said he did not see anything wrong with comments in which he accused people of Kikuyu ethnicity of being thieves.
“I said it because that is the truth,” he said. “I did not tell anyone to go and kill, and what I said has helped Kenyans to know the truth. Have you seen anyone fighting because of what I wrote? In fact they appreciate (it),” the user said.
One obstacle which the NCIC has frequently cited is the difficulty of tracking down people who post offending material anonymously. (See: Kenyan Authorities in the Dock Over Hate Speech http://iwpr.net/report-news/kenyan-authorities-dock-over-hate-speech.)
Some commentators believe that regardless of online anonymity, the commission should be spreading the net far wider than just the six individuals currently under investigation.
