The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji has directed the Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai to open a probe into the video clip purporting to show Deputy President William Ruto making inciteful remarks at a campaign rally.
The video which has since been established as manipulated was shared by Azimio bigwigs like Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho and Suna East MP and Azimio la Umoja Secretary General Junet Mohamed through their verified Twitter accounts on Tuesday.
The video has since been pulled down after Twitter flagged them.
In a statement on Thursday, DPP Haji said the video clips are capable of propagating ethnic incitement, vilification of others, or incitement to cause harm, contrary to Articles 33(2) of the Constitution.
Haji also found the clips able to trigger feelings of contempt, hatred, hostility violence, and ethnic discrimination.
“Furthermore, the clips may cause panic, chaos or violence among citizens of the Republic, contrary to Section 23 of the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act, 2018,” he stated.
The DPP directed IG Mutyambai to launch a probe into the clips, including finding information about their publication, authenticity, and their source.
“The investigation file should be submitted to the office of the undersigned, within seven days of the date hereof,” he instructed the police boss.
Joho and Junet came under fire from a section of Kenyans terming their actions as irresponsible.
The United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party has since appealed to the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to probe some of the Azimio-allied leaders for sharing the video.
UDA Secretary General Veronica Maina in a statement on Wednesday called on the commission to take action against Joho, Junet and the ODM party over what they termed 'propagating ethnic violence' ahead of August 9 polls.
“This video is a choreographed version intended to cause, elicit and spread hate, incitement to violence, ethnic discrimination, and disharmony. The video has also been intentionally edited with a deliberate aim and objective to cause ethnic hatred, fear, and intolerance during this peak political season,” said Ms. Maina.
She added: “We implore your office to act immediately and take action with a view to take down the unlawful videos, as well as suspend the respective accounts propagating hate speech.”
Junet Mohamed and Hassan Joho have quietly deleted the inciteful tweets they had posted to stir ethnic animosity in Uasin Gishu after we called their tribal idiocy out. Support whoever, but don't play blood games in Kenya. We stand guard for Kenya. We are many. We are legion. ⚖️ pic.twitter.com/AFldWSExKm
— Dr. John Njenga Karugia PhD. (@johnnjenga) August 4, 2022
Joho is still D minus student. This should wake them up early. Several hundred millions in damages will make them wail like kids. This time they over did themselves. Ruto should hire Miguna so he can drag them through mud via 'scatter gun' approach.