Jubilee Party has condemned remarks by nominated MP Joseph Wainaina urging members of a particular community to support a political arrangement or leave the region until after the 2027 elections.
In a statement issued on Monday, the party described the remarks as “reckless”, “divisive” and “dangerous”, warning that such rhetoric could reopen ethnic tensions associated with Kenya’s past election violence.
It has called on the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) to investigate and act if laws were breached.
Wainaina, a nominated United Democratic Alliance (UDA) MP, made the remarks while addressing a gathering in Kapseret, Uasin Gishu County.
Reports say he urged members of his community to back President William Ruto’s two-term bid and told those opposed to the political arrangement to leave the Rift Valley temporarily and return after the election.
The comments have triggered condemnation from political leaders, who have accused the legislator of using divisive rhetoric at a time of heightened political activity ahead of the 2027 General Election.
Jubilee Secretary-General Moitalel Ole Kenta said the party was particularly concerned because Wainaina is a sitting MP expected to uphold the Constitution and promote national cohesion.
“Such language is reckless, it is divisive, and it is dangerous,” the party said in its statement.
Jubilee warned that political rhetoric targeting communities could have consequences beyond electoral campaigns, recalling the 2007/08 post-election violence in which more than 1,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.
“We have walked this road before as a nation, and we refuse to walk it again,” the party said.
It further described calls for people to leave parts of the country because of their political loyalties as “incitement dressed up in the language of political loyalty”.
The party also criticised leaders who have remained silent over the remarks, saying “silence in the face of ethnic incitement is not neutrality. It is complicity.”
Jubilee urged the NCIC to formally investigate Wainaina’s remarks and, where laws were broken, act “swiftly, transparently, and without fear or favor”.
It also called on the DCI and ODPP to exercise their constitutional mandates.
The party said it remained committed to “national unity, peaceful coexistence, and a politics of ideas rather than ethnic mobilizations”, warning against allowing political interests to undermine relationships among communities that have lived and worked together for generations.
Wainaina’s remarks have added to growing debate over political mobilisation and ethnic rhetoric as parties and leaders position themselves ahead of the 2027 elections.