By Jabali Digital
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) wants Kenyans to engage in non-violent means of promoting their political ideologies, as one of the strategies against possible politically instigated violence ahead of next year’s general elections.
With politically instigated “dangerous speech” being identified as a major cause of political violence, Millicent Okatch, NCIC director of research and knowledge management urged Kenyans to tone down and promote their political ideologies without “stepping on each other’s toe.”
Addressing the press during dissemination of the gender analysis report at a Kisumu hotel on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, Okatch noted that politically instigated dangerous speech, largely affects women in political spaces, with the perpetrators hell-bent on disempowering, discriminating and disadvantaging them in public spaces, by making them shy away.
And it does not end there. “Additionally, dangerous speech also affects boys differently than men in a way that it enhances masculinity and to normalise violence as a tool for negotiation, which makes them susceptible to numerous intolerances as well as susceptible to being recruited by radicalised groups,” she said.
NCIC received support from various organisations among them United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to conduct research on gender radicalisation and dangerous speech, which includes hate speech.
During the research, Okatch said, they were also able to establish that there's a thin line between dangerous speech and radicalisation, “and that dangerous speech is a vehicle for radicalisation.”
Their recommendations include translation of policy documents relating to hate speech into local dialects for easy dissemination, which will in turn help in curbing hate speech across the country.
Margaret Omondi from Women's Concern Centre said the report has given them an insight on what dangerous speech is all about, and what follows now is action.
“And as a community and a person working with women at the grassroots level, I think it is now upon us to go and see how we are disseminating, starting civic education at the community level, for us to be sure that the community really understands what dangerous speech is all about,” she said.
On her part, Archbishop Betty Onyango, chairperson of Kisumu Interfaith Network said the government has a major role to play in preventing politically instigated violence, warning that it is unacceptable for any government of the day to throw teargas in church.
“Throwing teargas in the church is unacceptable,” she said, in reference to cases of former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua being teargassed in churches, possibly due to political intolerance.
With the report out, NCIC starts another chapter of working with multi-stakeholders including politicians and the media, to ensure it is disseminating as the Commission pushes for a violence-free electioneering period in 2027.
