Deputy President William Ruto has responded to National Cohesion and Integration Commission’s move to ban his signature campaign phrase ‘sipangwingwi’ by releasing a remix of the song dubbed ‘hatupangwingwi’
A few hours after NCIC termed ‘sipangwingwi’ as a hate speech phrase, Ruto took to Twitter to mock the decision by releasing a remix of the song ‘Sipangwingwi’.
In the song which he adopted as his campaign slogan; the Kenya Kwanza supremo is featured by musician E-Xray.
Other Kenya Kwanza allied leaders also took issue with the decision by NCIC to categorize their phrase as a hate speech term
Nakuru Senator Susan Kihika termed the move by NCIC as an indicator of the commission being lazy and wasting public resources.
“NCIC, you have totally lost direction. You must be so idle that this is the best you could do! It’s no wonder no one takes you seriously! Close shop and go home and save the taxpayers’ money!” Kihika wrote on Twitter.
On his part, the Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen wondered why the Samuel Kobia led commission did not include Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka’s nickname ‘watermelon’ as a hate speech term.
“Si basi mngewekea ndugu yetu Kalonzo ‘Watermelon’ Kwa hiyo list” (Would you then consider listing our brother Kalonzo ‘watermelon’ nickname on that list of hate speech terms) Murkomen wrote on Twitter.
On Friday, April 8, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) listed Deputy President William Ruto’s campaign slogan ‘Hatupangwingwi’ among the 19 lexicon words that it described as hate speech.
Speaking to journalists on Friday, April 8, NCIC Chairman Samuel Kobia said that just like ‘Madoadoa’, ‘hatupangwingwi’ is among the words that have the potential to incite violence ahead of the much-awaited 2022 General Election.
“We have therefore taken the bull by its horns through this exercise of identifying terms and coded language that have been commonly used in Kenya’s political landscape with the intent to incite violence against various communities of differing political stances,” said Kobia.
According to Kobia, the list of 19 words including ‘Chunga Kura’, ‘kama noma noma’, ‘kwekwe’, ‘watajua hawajui’, uncircumcised, mende, fumigation among others will be regularly updated and outlawed especially in the case of usage by politicians.
