Politicians from both Jubilee and Cord have been called upon to desist from politicising hate speech and instead leave those suspected to be perpetrating it to respond to their charges in court.
According to Chairperson Media Monitoring Oversight Committee Mrs Mary Ombara, over ten people are yet to be fully prosecuted for hate speech via social media due to political interference and there was a need to ensure it stops.
Giving a public lecture on Tuesday at Kisii University, Ombara said that justice is yet to be served to the 10 people despite the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and National Steering Committee on Media Monitoring (NSCMM) providing the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) with evidence linking them to abuse of online freedom.
Ombara, attributed the slow pace of prosecution to what she termed as ‘gross political interference in judicial processes against perpetrators of hate speech, which largely comes from ethnic bases.
“We all live in Kenya and there is a need to ensure we protect the peace that we currently enjoy,” she added.
This comes barely hours after five members of parliament were summoned to the CID to record a statement over hate speech.