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Meru Senator Mithika Linturi in a police car when he was arrested over Madoadoa remarks in Eldoret rally.

Fifth Estate

HESBON OWILLA: The trouble with our war on hate speech, war mongering and politics of deceit

The last one week has seen the citizenry and politicians from all sides of the political divide rise in uproar against the choice of words and perhaps the intent and or interpretations of Meru Senator. Interestingly many quotas including the legacy media houses, there has been uneasiness in repeating the words. Different interpretations have been made and Kenyans sympathetic of the Hustler Movement have come out to support the senator with claims that his arrest is pure witch hunt, and worse still, some have come out to say other politicians have used such if not worse words, phrases and speeches as far as hate speech, war mongering and incitement to violence is concerned.

One thing that is clear in our politics is the very truth that politicians sometimes achieve what they want to achieve by sending equivocal messages with one strand of interpretation that provides a safe interpretation they can hang on to save their skin. The intended interpretations are almost always very controversial and overdosed with obvious emotion arousing sentiments that have proved deadly. Unfortunately, when some of these hate-mongers are condemned for their choice of words, the effect of their messages are almost always well internalized by their target audiences. In fact, the intended audience rarely get to socialise with any apology or the aftermath of such inflammatory messages. Put in context, even though the good Senator apologized immediately on social media and many leaders have since condemned the utterances, majority of the folks who attended the Uasin Gishu rally, probably the real target audience, have no access to social media, or legacy media. They probably have no idea that what they were told in the rally has since been withdrawn, an apology given.

These guys are probably mulling over what the message meant, and there have been reports evictions and burning of houses, though there isn’t proof or any relations to the rally. It is pretty much the same as what has happened in the past in demonstrations. The media covers demonstrators and police dispersal of demonstrators and what people don’t get to know is the magnitude of casualties. After the demos, often we get the numbers of the injured and if there are fatalities we also get that. However, the last three elections have since shown that no one ever goes back to find out how the injured ended up and if there were injured folks who were out of the picture at the time of going to press or capturing the news footage, they end up not featuring. Thus the magnitude of the demonstrations and aftermath of incitements by politicians is never appreciated. Thus when leaders make reckless statements and their rivals respond by making equally reckless statements, the bigger picture is almost always bigger than the window of the picture we access in the public domain.

Simply put, our discourse of hate speech, incitement to violence and war mongering must change. NCIC and other stakeholders must rise beyond coming out when war mongers unleash their vitriol and emotion arousing statements and redefine the fight against these vices that are a threat to our social fabric and peaceful coexistence. A campaign that brings on board all stakeholders need to be sustained boldly and the fear of unpacking some of these words must be thrown through the window.

Kenyans need to be socialized on such words like madoadoa, kwekwe, non-natives and all that to the point of having a clear understanding of both the connotative and denotative meanings. The public needs to understand what these words mean and the media should be bold enough to speak out what they portend when used. Data journalism should anchor the unpacking of the reach and spread of such words and their consequences when uttered in public vis a vis the reach of the apologies on social media. Boldly helping the public understand these words would mean that the politicians who will dare go ahead and use these words will essentially reach the public with their war mongering and because the public will already be in the know, the politicians will end up exposing themselves as what they truly are – war mongers, anti-national unity and enemies of peace. In a nutshell, when the public is informed well enough, it would be easy to parade these politicians as enemies of the people rather heroes and heroines.

The trouble with our fight against some of these anti-national cohesion behaviours lies in the fact that designer-clad commissioners and stakeholders keep waxing lyrical after incidences of hate speech and war mongering rather than invest in proactive sensitisation. Concerted efforts in bringing, from the margins; real stories, lived experiences and the plights of Kenyans who have experienced the brunt of reckless utterances should be the way to go.

NCIC is one Commission that would only be considered successful if its advocacy focuses on helping the citizenry abhor leaders who incite communities against each other. The effects of NCIC should be seen in a citizenry that walks away from political leaders spewing hate speech and incite people to war; an immediate and public condemnation of loose cannons that spew hatred. Such outcomes are achievable if and only if all stakeholders led by NCIC embark on advocacy campaign anchored on telling stories that will help the public trace the suffering, struggles and the plight of hate speech victims to hate mongers and war mongers. That calls for powerful real life stories and not topical talk show discussions on TV and radio.

The author is a PhD Candidate in Media Studies and Political communication.

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