Mombasa, KENYA: Over 200 police officers have undergone training organised by National Cohesion and Integration Commission NCIC, that will aid in combating hate speech as the August 2017 general elections approach.
The training that is in partnership with Communications Authority CA, aims to equip various stakeholders such as the police with the skills of acquisition of hate speech evidence, storage and court presentation.
Speaking to the press in Mombasa on Teusday, NCIC chairperson Francis Ole Kaparo said already they are conducting trainings involving handling of cameras, voice recorders an other devices across the counties.
“We have done the trainings in 24 counties so far and trained 250 policemen already and by June, July we aim to have trained about 1000 officers.” Said Kaparo.
Kaparo added that they have experienced challenges when it comes to gathering evidence against hate speech mongers;prompting them to partner with CA to help implement this.
With the August 2017 elections approaching, there has been a lot of cases that NCIC has received and they have called on people to present themselves in court to help in such cases.
“Do not send a clip to NCIC and you are not prepared to present the evidence in court; it is in your own interest and the interest of the society that hate mongers wherever they are, are dealt with.” Added Kaparo.
Kaparo has however called upon politicians to conduct their campaigns peacefully and not to use words that may trigger violence among the people of Kenya.
