[A violence scene during the 2007 Post Election Violence. According to Farah Maalim, all leaders propagating hate speech should bee rejected at the ballot.] (bbc.co.uk)Any leader propagating hate and violence in Garissa should be rejected at the ballot come August, former Parliament Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim has said.
Kenya, he said, cannot afford to descend to another cycle of violence like it was witnessed in 2007 and 2008.
Maalim who is eyeing the Garissa Township MP seat presently held by Parliament Majority Leader Aden Duale said every Kenyan has the right to stay anywhere in the country irrespective of the tribe, colour, religion or creed.
There have been claims that some leaders in Garissa County have been dropping leaflets in Garissa town warning people who are not Somalis to leave.
At the emergence of the claims of hate spread, Maalim blamed Jubilee leaders in the county of spearheading the campaign aimed at evicting non-locals from Garissa.
There are many members of the Kamba, Kisii, Luhya and Luo communities in Garissa who Maalim says support his MP bid.
“We have to learn to live as brothers and sister because we are one. We only have one Kenya, so when we burn we lose it,” he said in Garissa town on Saturday.
Early in the year, a video circulated on social media with a voice telling Somali youth to mobilise and evict non-Somalis from Garissa town.
The video’s circulation raised political tension in Garissa with Maalim and opposition leader Raila Odinga calling on the National Cohesion and Integration Commission to investigate people behind the shooting of the video and bring them to book.
Maalim claimed the video’s publication on Facebook aimed at instilling fear among his supporters and compel them not to vote.