Dadaab Member of Parliament Farah Maalim has honoured the summon by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to record a statement regarding his controversial remarks concerning the Gen Z protestors.
The lawmaker was summoned after he was filmed saying that he would have killed at least 5,000 Gen Zs if he was the president during the anti-government protests.
NCIC said that the remarks are likely to incite feelings of contempt, violence and affect the peace among people of different political affiliations in the country.
“The 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,” the commission said.
The legislator had skipped the initial summon by NCIC on Monday where he was invited to shed light on the matter. Later that evening in a press conference, Maalim claimed that he had agreed with the commission that he would appear at a later date.
Maalim has been under fire for his controversial comments which attracted a public uproar from Kenyans calling for his arrest.
The MP, however, denied fueling violence and claimed that the video was doctored as it did not represent his position. He said that the video had been edited by unknown people to misrepresent the facts.
“The video making the rounds has been edited. It’s all cutting and pasting, taking a word from here and putting it together. It is Somalis who basically would do that, for other reasons, because I also weighed in on the politics of Somalia,” he said during an interview on KTN News.
The comments did not sit well with the political class as Maalim was later removed from Wiper Democratic Movement deputy party leader position.
Days later, he was kicked out of Sarovah Whitesands Beach Resort in Mombasa over the remarks. The hotel’s Managing Director Jimi Kariuki explained that the resort did not condone Maalim’s controversial comments.
“He is no longer a guest at our hotel. We asked him to leave the hotel earlier in the day. We do not in anyway condone his inflammatory and threatening statements against Kenyans and will not associate our brand with such a person,” Kariuki said.
In a press conference on Monday, Maalim dismissed the allegations of inciting violence and said that he could not make such remarks.
“I never called for the death of any Kenyans. I didn’t and I will never call for it,” he said.
“I am a very honest person for over 30 years of been in the politics of this country. I am one person who has had a track record that is matched by very few people.”
