Lamu, KENYA: The Lamu Council of elders have sworn to curse any politicians who shall disrupt the peace of the county during their campaigns, during and after elections.
The elders said many politicians were not afraid of using inflammatory remarks that could easily plunge the region into an election crisis.
Only 9 days remain to the August 8 general elections to be held.
The council spokesperson Sharif Salim said there was need for politicians to use words that seek to cultivate cohesion and unity among all communities, tribes and religions in the county.
He said only people who preach peaceful messages shall be safe from the curse.
The elders said they would hold a secret prayer session after which they will mention and lay curses on all politicians who shall do anything to disrupt normalcy all in the name of politics.
“As elders of this land we have decided we shall do our own part in ensuring that politicians who divide people and create unnecessary tension and havoc don’t go scott free.They will have a curse on their lives till they die,” said Salim.
The elders said there was need for all politicians irrespective of their political alliances to seek to preach unity before and after elections.
They said the generations of any politician that gets the curse will live to suffer the consequences of the actions of their forefathers.
They said they will not wish what happened in 2007 PEV to take place in Lamu or anywhere in the county and thus their decision to curse politicians who might harbor the intentions of bloodshed because of elections or politics.
“When we lay a curse on you,its not just you that suffers,your children,their children and your great-great-great grandchildren will also suffer the same fate,”said Salim.
On the same note,speaking in Lamu last week,Coast Regional Coordinator Nelson Marwa asked politicians to shun political language that divides and instead seek and pursue one that unifies.
Marwa said irrespective of whether they are from Jubilee or NASA,there was need for politicians to desist from using words that can instill hate, fear or create tension in any given way and place and that such politicians will be promptly apprehended and prosecuted for hate speech.
Marwa also warned the youth in Lamu against allowing themselves to be paid and used to cause chaos during campaigns and elections adding that the law shall not be soft on such youth and they will be arrested and charged.
“We won’t care about your age. If we get you, we will have you arrested. People who go around threatening others because they have been paid by whoever should stop,” said Marwa.