A year ago, a friend asked me to wait for him in Nairobi's central business district (CBD).
I did not have enough money to sit in a restaurant, so I stood on the space between Kenya National Archives and Government Lane.
In the push and shove that comes with being in the CBD at 6pm, I found myself close to a crowd that had gathered around a middle-aged man with a public address (PA) system.
Implausible claims
It was loud enough, so I could hear everything he said. It was lewd, eye-watering, scary, and a tad too inciting.
He spoke proudly about the assassination of Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, about the assassination of Tom Mboya and how a certain top politician had beaten numerous assassination plots by the Government.
He threw in a careless statement about how the Government of 2007 had funded the transportation of Mungiki to Naivasha to hack to death members of a certain community.
Even more concerning, he boldly stated that the current government was planning the same.
Twenty minutes later, he brandished a book he had written, which he was selling at Sh200.
He promised an already entertained crowd that the book had 'more detail'.
Of course several people bought it. I called a friend of mine last week to ask if the man was still in the CBD. To my surprise, he apparently is, with the same message.
Negative sentiments
I had the same questions then that I have right now: Where does he get the licence to set up a PA system in town and sell such a book? Where is the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) as he does all this?
And the policemen who control traffic just opposite him; is the PA system not loud enough for them to arrest this man?
Where do we draw the line between freedom of expression and hate speech?
I watched a clip this past weekend so I could clearly get what National Super Alliance (NASA) Presidential candidate Raila Odinga said that has raised so much heat.
In my view, his statement was wrong.
Raila is not the person to retract his statements and say he was misquoted. In 2013, he coined the 'pombe-bangi' statement and life went on.
The fact that he had to call a press conference to clarify what he said already shows something is off, and he knows it too.
Hate speech
But instead, it has become another of those debates where we want to define hate speech by its legal terms, align ourselves to our political sides and argue it out.
And while we argue, we point out what someone else on the other side also said.
Even worse, sections of the media, in pretending to be objective, cannot simply call out top politicians and anyone for such statements.
It does not stop at Raila Odinga: the clips doing rounds on social media have more and more politicians letting out loose statements to cheering crowds.
When anyone calls them out, the first reaction is defence from their stalwarts.
Fact is, when you have to explain a statement the second time, something is awfully wrong with it.
We have become too comfortable with the idea of hate-mongering, which is both dangerous and alarming.
For that man in Nairobi's CBD to operate daily, louder with each passing day, someone somewhere is sleeping on the job.
I have already read about two separate incidents in Naivasha and Kajiado, where some have started spreading hateful leaflets.
So far, I have not read about any arrest or questioning.
I have only seen two sides of the political divide smearing blame at each other for it.
Precaution
A sign of war does not necessarily mean war. Ignoring, however, means a bloodbath. The events of 2007 did not start at the announcement of the presidential results. Hardly.
There was a foreword and a preface to the story, and we only started worrying when we were deep into the PEV book.
We should notice that the current political climate favours such provocation, but by no means should we dismiss it as normal.
Instead, whatever authorities that have may have been set up to curb such hate mongering should earn their bread especially right now.
The script is always the same, and will be the case in the remaining days: Politicians will seek to manipulate community grievances to whip up support.
It has been that way in every contested election since the 1992.
The grievances will revolve around land, employment and access to the material benefits of political office. What we should change, is how we react to them.
Right now however, we are ignoring the most basic signs. It will be our undoing.
Mr Mureu is a teacher.murepack@gmail.com
