Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha is once again under attack by the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya) over his al-Shabaab remarks to a female Muslim reporter.
FIDA has threatened to file a petition if Magoha doesn’t issue a public apology to the journalist and resign from his post.
According to FIDA, the CS’s utterances were prejudicial and subsequently a violation of human rights.
“CS Magoha’s utterances resulted in pure discrimination and a violation of human rights contrary to, and prohibited by Article 27 (4) of the Constitution. If Magoha failed to take personal responsibility for his words and resign from public office, FIDA-Kenya will petition relevant establishments to institute disciplinary actions against him,” read the statement.
“We demand that he makes a public apology to the journalist. FIDA-Kenya also demands that CS Magoha takes personal responsibility for his utterances and resign from public office failure to which FIDA-Kenya will petition relevant institutions to institute disciplinary actions against the CS,” said the body led by its chairperson Nancy Ikinu.
The organization further noted that Magoha had acted inappropriately despite holding a high-ranking and important office.
Additionally, FIDA stated that Magoha had not only been disrespectful, unacceptable, and repulsive but also showcased a clear case of profiling which is a violation of the constitution.
“The comments were quite unfortunate coming from a high-ranking government official. This is simply hate speech and it is sad that a whole CS can target, profile and verbally attack a female journalist in the course of her duties based on her assumed religion while further associating her religion with terrorism,” the body stated.
Magoha’s comments which also sparked outrage from the Muslim clergy and groups, occurred on Tuesday when the education head seemingly characterized the journalist as an agent of an illegal terrorist group.
This took place at a ceremony to set the foundation for the second phase of building junior high classrooms for the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) at Nairobi’s Pumwani Girls and Pumwani Boys Secondary School.