Anti-finance bill protests. Photo/courtesy.
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) has summoned Daadab Member of Parliament Farah Maalim to appear before them today, Thursday, 11th July at 11:00 a.m. at its offices in Upper Hill, Nairobi.
The Commission claims that Maalim’s utterances are likely to incite feelings of contempt, hatred, hostility, violence, or discrimination, and affect harmonious coexistence between groups of different political affiliations in Kenya, contrary to Section 13(1)(a) of the NCI Act.
This comes after a viral video surfaced showing Farah Maalim making harsh remarks against Kenyan protesters over the weekend. Kenyans on X (formerly Twitter) have since demanded the arrest and prosecution of the MP, sparking a public uproar.
In the viral video, Maalim, speaking in the Somali language, said that if he were the President of Kenya, he would have permanently eliminated 5000 young protesters every day. He claimed that the young people who took to the streets were from wealthy backgrounds and were dropped off in the city with the main purpose of causing mayhem.
“Children from wealthy business owners, wealthy parents, and kids raised on ill-gotten wealth, 80% from one tribe, were dropped off in downtown and told to riot and take over State House and Parliament buildings,” Maalim said. “God forbid if I was president, I would have killed them, 5000 of them daily. Seriously, there is no two ways about it.”
Maalim has claimed that the video has been tampered with. Appearing on a breakfast show with KTN News on Tuesday, he said his words were taken out of context. “It’s all cutting and pasting, taking a word from here, another from there, and putting it together. There is a lot of nonsense there. It’s Somalis basically who would do that for other reasons because I weighed in pretty much on the politics in Somalia,” he said.
“The one thing is that when you have a failed state in a sense where you say you are occupying State House and you’re occupying Parliament, two unconstitutional institutions that are a bedrock of the stability of the country and the democracy that we practice,” Maalim added.
On Wednesday, the Wiper party distanced itself from his remarks. “Regarding the conduct and statements attributed to deputy party leader Farah Maalim, let it be known clearly that the Wiper Democratic Movement Party distances and disassociates itself from his remarks,” Wiper secretary general Shakila Abdalla said. She added that they go against their guiding principles and values as a party. “Hon Farah Maalim will be de-whipped from all committees in Parliament, including the Speaker’s panel,” she added.
