Moses Kuria walks out of TV interview

Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria walked out of studio during a live interview on Citizen TV’s The Big Question show Tuesday night.

Kuria had been asked to shed light on the allegations of incitement that have led to wide condemnation from different quarters including the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) and his party The National Alliance (TNA).

Before the walk-out, the legislator had claimed that the clip which allegedly shows him issuing inflammatory statements was a creation of the media.

“Kenyans will be shocked that the function where I am supposed to have issued the inciting statement was on June 26, 2015. The story came out 13 days later,” he said.

“It was calculated editing of what happened. It is sad that the media can come up with this.”

Kuria claimed that he had spoken for 45 minutes at the function adding that the media only chose to cut and use particular parts of the speech.

He dared any media house with the full footage to air it alleging that it is the media, and not him, which should be sued for propagating hate speech.

The Gatundu South MP walked out as the clip was being played in order to give him a chance to elaborate on the incitement allegations, following numerous requests from viewers.

Speaking in his constituency last week, Kuria allegedly asked youth to use pangas to slash anyone opposed to the National Youth Service (NYS) projects in the area.

The utterances, made in English and his native language, prompted NCIC, through its chair Francis Ole Kaparo to write to the Chief Justice, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Inspector General of Police asking for the prosecution of the Gatundu South MP.

In his response, DPP Keriako Tobiko said that he had made an application of urgency to the court seeking the cancellation of Kuria’s bail that will see him face further charges for separate criminal offences relating to his utterance.

Kuria has since been summoned at the Directorate of Criminal Investigation headquarters and the Milimani Law Court to answer to the allegations.

Other than last week’s utterances, Kuria has been on the “bad books” of the courts and NCIC for allegedly making inciting posts on social media following a series of terror attacks in the country.