Mutahi Ngunyi appears before cohesion team over remarks

Political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi on Tuesday appeared before the national cohesion team after a city lawyer accused him of posting hate comments on Twitter.

Mr Ngunyi appeared before the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to respond to its summons but asked for more time to prepare his statement.

NCIC secretary Hassan Sheikh Mohamed said the political scientist would formally appear before the commission on Thursday.

“He asked to come back at a later date because he had just arrived from a long and tiring trip. We allowed him to come back on Thursday, when the official hearing will be held,” he said on phone.  

Mr Ngunyi last week apologised for the posts but the Law Society of Kenya sent a protest letter to NCIC asking it to investigate the alleged tribal remarks against a Kenyan community.

In a letter addressed to Mr Mohammed, LSK chief executive Apollo Mboya claimed Mr Ngunyi’s Twitter posts amounted to hate.

“In particular, the posts target members of a specific community as lacking individuality and in a state of mental slavery, assertions that are not only false but may very well constitute hate speech directed at specific members of a community (of) which I am a member,” read the letter in part.

“It is my view that the words uttered by Mutahi Ngunyi are intended to incite feelings of contempt, hatred, hostility, violence and/or discrimination against a community on the basis of ethnicity and, therefore, committed an offence under Section 62 of the NCIC Act,” he adds.

Mr Mboya also copied the letter to Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko and Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinnet.