• MP is sought over remarks that the police kept off the DP’s event yet they (the police) had credible intelligence there would be chaos.
• Wahome, in the statement as transcribed by the NCIC, says 'the security (team) was part of the plan to attack the AIPCA church.'
Image: FILE
The cohesion commission has summoned Kandara MP Alice Wahome to appear before it on Thursday on charges of hate speech.
The lawmaker is being sought for saying the state planned the attack on AIPCA church last October.
Two youths – Peter Mbothu and Christopher Kariuki – died in the chaos that greeted DP William Ruto’s tour of the area.
MP Wahome, in the statement as transcribed by the NCIC, says "the security (team) was part of the plan to attack the AIPCA church.”
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission says the words the lawmaker made in Kenol area, Murang’a county, in October last year were hateful.
In the transcript attached to her summonses, the MP is quoted lamenting that it took efforts of members of the public to repulse the attackers. She also says the lot was ferried in three buses and was paid Sh1,100 transport reimbursement.
MP Wahome, the NCIC notice reads, also raised concerns that police officers – who were metres away from the scene of the incident – turned a deaf ear to locals.
She is quoted as calling on Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai to resign "if he insists he was not aware of the attack".
The lawmaker is further in trouble for saying government operatives and officials at the Interior ministry had prior knowledge of the violence.
The NCIC, in the summons, says MP Wahome's words were calculated as hateful. It holds that the utterances are likely to affect harmonious coexistence between communities living in the Mt Kenya region.
“You (MP Wahome) are hereby required to appear at the commission’s offices…on Thursday, January 14, at 10 am so as to assist the commission with the ongoing investigations,” commission secretary Skitter Mbugua said.
“Take further notice that unless you appear in person at the aforementioned place, date and time, the commission shall institute contempt proceedings against you with the attendant consequences.”
The NCIC transcript shows the MP accusing President Uhuru Kenyatta of turning a blind eye to people planning to ethnically mobilise Mt Kenya people, ostensibly against DP Ruto.
She also took a swipe at the President for letting taxpayer’s money be used to mobilise youths along ethnic lines.
MP Wahome is also quoted accusing the police of keeping off the DP’s event yet they (the police) had credible intelligence there would be chaos.
NCIC quotes her pointing fingers at Interior CS Fred Matiang’i, Interior PS Karanja Kibicho, Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai, and the DCI.
This followed that the officials had not issued any statement citing who was behind the October 4, 2020, chaos.
"You (it is unclear who is referred to) have hopelessly tried to drag my name and the name of Nyoro (Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro) into this organised crime.
“You are now organising another crime by mobilising youths using cultural rights, using cultural connotations…and I want to tell you…I want to warn you that Kenya does not operate in isolation...Kenya operates in a global economy, a global world where intolerance where democracy must be allowed to thrive.”
A police intelligence report showed that the violence was planned in advance and the youths were imported.
The report showed that when another group got wind of the attack of the impending attack, they planned a counter attack hence the chaos.
Wahome, in the transcribed utterances, said the money be used to “build hospitals, take water to the villages, or used within a hospital in Kenol or Thika.”
MP Wahome also took a swipe at the GEMA Cultural Association, in the speech NCIC wants her charged, for facilitating the mobilisation.
The lawmaker said she’d write to the Interior minister Fred Matiang’i and copy Interior PS Karanja Kibicho highlighting her concerns.
“I will copy that letter to the Inspector General of Police who personally is likely going forward to take responsibility of some of this crimes like disrupting people’s meeting, like over citing murder, killings of the youths, like over citing mobilisation of police to disrupt meetings with a political agenda,” the NCIC notice reads.
The commission quotes the MP as having stated she’d copy the letter to Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, American Embassy, IPOA – for independent investigations into the Maragua Kenol incident – and the European Union.
The lawmaker was not immediately available for comment.
ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna and Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa recently had a date with the NCIC over hate remarks made in the recent Msambweni MP by-election. They were later let off the hook after apologising.