Friday 16th January 2015

KMA Centre, 7th Floor, Upper Hiil, Nairobi

As you are aware, Hon. Moses Kuria has been charged with various offences including hate speech and ethnic contempt contrary to the National Cohesion and Integration Act. These charges emanated from utterances/publications that the accused made on his Facebook account. The accused appeared before court for the purposes of plea taking on the 26th day of June 2014, where he pleaded not guilty. The case came up for hearing on the 28th day of October 2014, wherein the accused through his advocate sought leave of the court to take part in conciliation as contemplated under Sections 25(g) and 61(2) of the National Cohesion and Integration Act No. 12 of 2008. On the 26th day of November 2014 during a mention, the court ordered the accused to refrain from making any more divisive posts on any of his social media platforms. The accused was granted leave and he approached both the National Cohesion and Integration Commission as well as the Law Society of Kenya the complainant in this matter to participate in the conciliation.A number of conciliation meetings were held with the accused and the LSK which on the 12th day of January 2015 culminated in an agreement which contained a number of conditions that the accused was to observe. While the Commission believes that the accused is innocent until proven guilty as well as the freedom of expression as guaranteed under Article 33 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the Commission has regretfully observed that the Hon. Kuria has not exhibited a conciliatory demeanour in his social media accounts. While the conciliation process has been in progress, Hon. Kuria has continued to post material on his social media accounts that in the opinion of the Commission may cause disharmony and are in contradiction of the spirit of conciliation Considering these latest developments, a full Commission meeting was held on the 15th, of January 2015 wherein it was resolved that the that the Commission withdraw from the conciliation process and allow the case to proceed to its logical conclusion through the judiciai process.The Commission in conjunction with the National Police Service is continuing to monitor a number of individual bloggers, social media accounts who are publishing material that is injurious to cohesion in the country and will take appropriate action to ensure that these individuals face the full force of the law.Finally, the Commission calls upon all users of social media to observe the law and refrain from posting material that will divide this country

Hon. Francis Xavier ole kaparo, EGH SS

National Cohesion and Integration Commission Chairperson