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The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) Chairman Francis Ole Kaparo says he is not afraid of losing his job because of criticizing politicians.
Speaking during the 49th series of bi-monthly talks organized by the Kenya Alliance of Resident Association at the Laico Hotel on Tuesday, the former National Assembly Speaker said he will still be a Kenyan even if he is removed from office.
“Mimi siogopi. Na hata nikitolewa hapa sitakosa mahali pa kuenda. Unaweza kunitoa hapa lakini hauwezi kunitoa Kenya, (I am not afraid. You can remove me here but I will have somewhere to go. You can remove me here but that can’t make me lose my Kenyan citizenship),” Kaparo said.
He urged all Kenyans to preach peace messages in the run up to the 2017 elections to avert possible violence.
“I call upon everyone to help me. I have never had a more difficult task like this one in my life, and neither have I had a more important role like this. Let us unite and stop the things that can cause negative ethnicity and violence,” he said.
Kaparo said that he is glad that the politicians who were arrested and detained at Pangani for hate speech have promised to preach peach regardless of their political affiliations.
He lauded their initiative saying it is highly commendable considering that the country is evenly divided as far as national cohesion is concerned.
“During our 2012 scientific research on cohesion, we were at 56.4%. That means we are an almost evenly divided society. And if we measure now our cohesion index, we are probably at 20%,” he noted.
He called on the youth to stop being misused by politicians for their selfish ends.
“Don’t go causing trouble to other people all because you are jobless. I can tell you for free, you are more useful to yourselves alive than you are when dead,” Kaparo said.
He revealed that NCIC is working with IT experts to nab those using social media to fan hate among Kenyans and singled out Whatsapp as the most notorious platform which people are using to pass hate messages as they are afraid of being monitored on Twitter and Facebook.
“My message to young people is that please use your IT expertise for your own good. Don’t use it to fan hate among Kenyans. We have engaged IT experts who are helping us do some work. I think will be done by next week and we should be seeing some people at Pangani as well,” he said.
