A lobby group has moved to court seeking to quash the decision by National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) which categorised the terms ‘Hatupangwingwi’ and ‘Watajua hawajui” as hate speech words.
The Chama cha Mawakili limited through their lawyer Felix Kiprono has moved to court through a certificate of urgency filed at Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.
“That leave be granted to the exparte applicant herein to apply for an order of certiorari directed at the respondent, quashing the respondent’s decision made on 8th April 2022 vide Hatelex: A lexicon of hate speech terms in Kenya banning and/or classifying “hatupangwingwi” and “watajua hawajui” as hate terms,” the application read in part.
The lobby group has further asked the court to grant leave to operate as a stay of the implementation of the decision of the respondent made on April 8, 2022, to the extent that it banned and/or classified “Hatupangwingwi” and “watajua hawajui” as hate terms.
Kiprono claims that the process leading to the commission’s decision is grotesquely flawed, irrational, illegal, unconstitutional and amounts to abuse of power by the respondent.
“The words/terms being “Hatupangwingwi” and “watajua hawajui” purportedly classified as hate terms and /or banned by the respondent are aphorisms of freedom of expression used by Kenyans and well protected by Article 33 of the Constitution and do not amount to hate speech and/or any other negative connotations,” the applicants said in their suit.
The group further says that NCIC in purporting to classify and/or ban the said words without any lawful justification has acted ultra-vires, taken sides and descended into the arena of politics.
