Politicians will be disciplined if they do not stop hate speech and incitement, Registrar of Political Parties Lucy Ndung’u has said.
Speaking yesterday at her office in Nairobi, she said parties must impose their code of conduct on wayward members.
“Use of hate speech should stop and we hope going forward, political parties will be strict on their members,” Ndung’u said.
The registrar spoke after meeting officials from the Kenya School of Law and the Intellectual Resource Centre, which partnered to develop a training curriculum for political parties’ officials.
Ndung’u said the syllabus has been derived from the lessons learnt from the 2013 general election.
She said it will help prevent a recurrence of the 2007-08 postelection violence.
“We have developed this Political Parties Leadership Curriculum to train political parties on compliance with the law,” the registrar said.
“This will prepare them for a credible, peaceful, free and fair general election in 2017.”
Lee Muthoga, a consultant with the Intellectual Resource Centre, said a vibrant party system is important for social development.
He said the training will start towards the end of this month and run until February next year.
National party officials will be the first to be trained, before the programme is rolled out to all counties, Muthoga said.
“The curriculum will enable political parties to comply with integrity requirements and have a national character,” he said.
“Parties will also be trained to carry out issue-based campaigns, as the country approaches elections.”