Friday, July 15, 2022 – It appears all the stars have aligned in favor of Deputy President William Ruto ahead of the August 9th General Election.
Lately, Ruto and his allies have been winning from court cases to IEBC verdicts to the recent by-elections.
And now, Ruto has won yet another battle after the High Court overturned a decision by the National Cohesion and Integrated Commission (NCIC) to ban the use of ‘Hatupangwingwi’ phrase during the Kenya Kwanza Alliance presidential campaigns.
In a landmark ruling delivered by Justice Antony Ndung’u, the court ruled that the terms do not constitute hate speech.
The court noted that the Commission did not follow due process when banning the phrase alongside other words that were classified as lexicon.
“An order of certiorari is hereby issued quashing the NCIC’s decision made on April 8, 2022, vivid Hatelex: a lexicon of hate speech terms in Kenya banning and or classifying “Hatupangwingwi” and “Watajua Hawajui” phrases as hate speech,” the High Court ruled.
The judge said NCIC did not notify the general public about the intended ban as provided for under Section 7 of the Fair Administrative Action Act, 2015.
The 18-page judgment came after Chama cha Mawakili Limite (CML) petitioned the court to overrule NCIC’s decision arguing that it was discriminatory.
Through lawyers Felix Kiprono and Vincent Yegon, CML urged the judge to grant the order quashing the ban announced by the NCIC, before it swings to institute criminal proceedings against millions of Kenyans who use the two alleged hate terms during this campaigning period.
“The word/terms –Hatupangwingwi and Watajua Hawajui classified as hate terms and or banned by NCIC are aphorisms of freedoms of expressions used by Kenyans and does not amount to hate speech,” Kiprono stated.
NCIC outlawed Deputy President William Ruto’s campaign catchphrase ‘Hatupangwingwi.’
NCIC Chairman Samuel Kobia listed ‘Hatupangwingwi’ phrase among the 19 lexicon words that it described as hate speech.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
0 Comments