Court to rule on Moses Kuria’s bid to bar press from hate speech case
A Nairobi court is on Monday expected to rule on whether the media should be barred from covering proceedings in the trial of controversial Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria.
The MP, who is being tried on hate speech and incitement to violence charges, wants the media gagged on the grounds that he has been increasingly getting “negative” publicity.
He argues the publicity has partly contributed to a fresh investigation on a matter where he is likely to be prosecuted.
The issue regards recent remarks be made in his constituency against politicians opposed to National Youth Service (NYS) initiatives.
Mr Kuria reportedly told youths brandishing machetes to “slash” anyone opposing NYS programmes.
The incident was captured and aired on national TV and reported in the local daily newspapers.
Although the politician has since said he regretted saying those words, he has remained unapologetic over the claims.
Last week, he caused a stir when he walked out of a live TV interview, accusing the media of being biased.
He had objected to Citizen TV‘s Hussein Mohamed’s request to play the controversial “slashing” video clip, claiming it was a distortion of facts.
The legislator instead wanted the 45-minute clip aired entirely for “contextualisation” and not the edited bit.
“Kenyans will be shocked that the function where I am supposed to have issued the inciting statement was on June 26, 2015. The story came out 13 days later. It was calculated editing of what happened. It is sad that the media can come up with this,” he charged before storming out when the station started playing the clip.
The politician’s freedom is now threatened by a new request for the cancellation of the Sh2 million bond terms he was granted in a separate case of hate speech.