Lamu MCAs charged for claiming Kikuyu are like Jews

 Monica Njambi Kitunyu, a nominated MCA in the Lamu county Assembly and Anthony Njomo Maina

Two MCAs from Lamu were charged at a Mombasa court for ethnic contempt.

The two compared the Kikuyus in the area to Jews besides alleging a conspiracy against them.

Monica Njambi Kitunyu, a nominated MCA in the Lamu county Assembly and Anthony Njomo Maina, the Bahari Ward MCA were charged with inciting hostility between Muslims and Christians by equating themselves to persecuted Jews in a predominantly Muslim area.

Prosecutors further claim the two MCAs gave two incendiary speeches while addressing mourners at Kihongwe area of Lamu on July 27.

It is alleged they claimed that ethnic Gikuyu cannot be exterminated because they are “children of Israel and God”, in reference to the 2014 terrorist attacks in the county in which close to 100 people, most of them Kikuyu, were killed.

Monica is accused of propagating ethnic hostilities by alleging that ethnic Gikuyu women and children were being systematically killed in local hospitals and suggesting that the alleged killings were part of a conspiracy that began with the terrorist acts.

She is also alleged to have told a rally that her tribe was too big a “house and cannot be finished like that,” a statement the prosecution claims was “intended to incite the feelings of ethnic hostilities between Kikuyu (Christians) and other tribes (Muslims) in Lamu county.”

Anthony is accused of telling the same gathering that his people would not allow “what happened in 2014” to recur and adding that his people survived the attacks because “Kikuyu are children of Israel and God could not allow we be finished,” which the state also claims can cause religious animosity.

But their trial failed to kick off when the MCAs vanished from the court premises after receiving summons.

Senior Resident magistrate Martin Rabera issued a warrant of arrest following an application by Senior Assistant Director of Public of Prosecution Alexander Muteti who said he was unable to explain how the accused vanished.

Muteti further said investigators had informed him the two were in court after honouring summons issued on October 12.

Their lawyer Caroline Mboko claimed the two were not in court in Mombasa because they were in Nairobi where they were to appear in court in Nairobi to face similar charges.

She claimed her clients had been summoned to a Nairobi court and alleged further she had been aware the accused were to appear in the Nairobi court only to receive a verbal communication that they were wanted in Mombasa instead.

She alleged that by the time she came to the Mombasa court, her clients were in Nairobi, a claim that was rejected. Muteti said that the investigation officer who was in the court was ready to swear that the two were in court to disclaim what their lawyer was saying.

During the proceedings, Rabera wondered why the accused’s lawyer was insisting the two suspects were in Nairobi and yet she was in a possession of a letter from another lawyer addressed to the DPP asking for an out of court settlement with the state.

The magistrate dismissed Mboko’s argument and ordered the MCAs’ arrest.

The magistrate ordered the accused to be brought to court on November 1 to answer the charges levelled against them.