Busia CORD supporters threaten to protest over hate speech arrests

CORD members in Busia County have threatened to hold protests if the Cord MPs currently detained over hate speech charges, including their women representative Florence Mutua, are not released.

Addressing the press in Busia, the members, led by Peter Odem and Monica Mung’ala, criticized the way the Jubilee Administration was handling the hate speech issue, saying it is biased towards its members.

“We are standing with our women representative and we want her to be released before the end of the day, or else we will go to the streets,” said Peter Odem.

The members also accused the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) of bias towards Jubilee, saying it should have first warned the CORD legislators against hate speech before summoning them.

“NCIC is executing its mandate with bias. It should have warned our members first,” said Monica Mung’ala.

All the eight legislators who were accused of hate speech and arraigned in a Nairobi court were on Tuesday detained for four days at Muthaiga, Gigiri and Pangani police stations.

Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama, Busia Women Representative Florence Mutua, Kilifi Women Representative Aisha Jumwa and MPs Timothy Bosire, (Kitutu Masaba), Junet Mohammed (Suna East), Moses Kuria (Gatundu South), Ferdinand Waititu (Kabete) and Kimani Ngunjiri (Bahati) were arraigned in court on Tuesday afternoon to answer to charges of hate speech.

The case will be mentioned on June 17, 2016.