Kenya’s election rhetoric is sharpening ethnic fault lines as political remarks are framed and amplified online to drive exclusionary discourse

Remarks by United Democratic Alliance (UDA) member of parliament Joseph Wainaina Iraya have stirred debate about ethnicity and political loyalty in Kenya’s Rift Valley. In footage from a 29 August 2026 meeting in Ngeria, Kapseret, he appeared to question residents who opposed president William Ruto and UDA about their ethnicity and whether they belonged in the region.

Some people on social media took his remarks as a threat against Kikuyu residents of Uasin Gishu who opposed Ruto’s re-election bid. The footage then took on another turn when posts about it made the ethnic claim more explicit, reviving memories of the 2007 post-election violence.

The remarks drew condemnation from prominent figures and some online users called for Wainaina’s arrest. Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) also summoned him over the matter.

Narratives shaping public discourse

Ethnic profiling, exclusionary rhetoric and context manipulation in Kenya’s online political discourse

Political disputes in the Rift Valley have raised questions about ethnicity, political loyalty and who belongs in the region as the 2027 general election draws nearer. The latest controversy emerged from remarks attributed to Joseph Wainaina Iraya, a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) member of parliament (MP), during a public meeting in Ngeria, Kapseret, on 29 August 2026. Amateur footage circulating online appeared to show him telling residents that those who opposed president William Ruto and UDA should leave the area. Social media users widely interpreted the remarks as targeting Kikuyu residents of Uasin Gishu who did not support Ruto’s re-election (1, 2, 3, 4).

The remarks appeared to make the community’s right to live in the region conditional on its political allegiance. The subsequent online conversation also repeatedly invoked memories of the 2007 to 2008 post-election violence, further increasing the sensitivity of the issue, as the region was the worst hit by the 2007 to 2008 post-election violence due to similar rhetoric. One user wrote: ‘Kikuyus will possibly defend themselves this time round.’ The post received 403 views and one engagement.

The incident sparked significant online conversation across Facebook, TikTok and X between 29 August and 07 September 2026. On X, posts discussing Wainaina’s remarks and the subsequent ethnic rhetoric generated approximately 2,335 mentions, 709,200 impressions and 11,102 engagements. On Facebook, related content accumulated approximately 10.6 million views and approximately 96,400 reactions. On TikTok, five videos mentioning the incident (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) generated about 64,188 views and 2,662 engagements. Much of the conversation condemned Wainaina’s remarks.

One of the earliest widely circulated X posts appeared on 30 August 2026, when one user shared a video of Wainaina’s remarks alongside a Swahili caption, which translates as: ‘Whoever does not want William Ruto here should be the first to leave.’ The post further said: ‘Nominated MP Wainaina reveals to the Kalenjins that he has threatened and warned Kikuyus living in Eldoret that before they send Ruto home, they should leave Rift Valley.’ It generated 16,293 views and 295 engagements.

Other accounts subsequently amplified the footage (1, 2) with more explicit references to ethnicity, with one of the posts made on 30 August 2026 generating 31,539 views and 1,082 engagements.

Condemnations soon followed. Former Mukurweini MP Kabando Wa Kabando described his remarks as ‘filth’ on 30 August, generating 42,853 views and 910 engagements. On 01 September 2026, a video showed Eldoret residents demanding Wainaina’s arrest. The post attracted 13,924 views and 1,842 engagements.

Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka described the remarks as part of growing political intolerance and hate speech and said they should be condemned ‘in the strongest terms’. His X post generated 20,360 views and 208 engagements.

Nyandarua senator John Methu similarly described the remarks as ‘divisive and ethnic profiling language’, adding that Nakuru county was home to all Kenyan communities. The post generated 4,251 views and 315 engagements. Mainstream media also amplified the controversy, with Daily Nation reporting growing condemnation in a post that generated 21,070 views and 118 engagements.

Wainaina disputed the ethnic interpretation of his remarks in a 01 September video, saying: ‘They are fighting me politically. I am an old man, and I cannot betray the Kikuyu community in Eldoret. Since I live here, I don’t want what happened in 2007 to happen again.’ The video received 37,511 views and 171 engagements. However, criticism continued, with one post claiming that Wainaina was ‘not APOLOGETIC’. The post received 18,799 views and 154 engagements.

The controversy also drew an institutional response when the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) summoned Wainaina to appear before it on 17 September 2026. The commission’s post on X announcing the summons generated 6,395 views and 79 engagements.

A second strand of the same anti-Kikuyu rhetoric involved the reframing of a speech by UDA secretary general Hassan Omar. Posts presented his criticism of the elites and unequal access to public services as an attack on ‘Kikuyu presidents’ and, by extension, the Kikuyu community. The earliest identified explicit ethnic framing on X appeared on 01 September 2026, when Lightcast TV shared a video lasting one minute and 47 seconds with a Swahili caption that translates as: ‘Kikuyu presidents benefited only their own people; they packed 100 students into one classroom for us while theirs went to private schools.’ The post generated 529 views and four engagements, comprising three likes and one repost.

The framing was substantially amplified after @WANTAM_GEN_Z shared the same clip with the caption: ‘Kikuyu presidents only benefited their own people. They packed 100 students into one classroom for us while theirs went to private schools. — Omar Hassan blasting Kikuyu presidents.’ The account added: ‘UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar is at it again, insulting the Mt Kenya community and making very ugly tribal remarks.’ The post generated 373,623 views and 402 engagements, comprising 240 likes, 94 reposts and 68 quotes, as well as 239 replies. Five other users amplified this framing (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), receiving about 69,547 views and 2,836 engagements in total.

These attributed statements did not reflect the context of Omar’s speech at a consultative meeting in Nyali sub-county on 01 September 2026, where he addressed village elders and the area’s representatives of Nyumba Kumi (‘ten households’), the country’s neighbourhood watch initiative. The full meeting was livestreamed on Omar’s official Facebook page under the title ‘Consultative Meeting with Village Elders and Mabalozi, Nyali Sub County’, generating approximately 7,000 views and 286 engagements, substantially less than the 373,623 views generated by the later @WANTAM_GEN_Z post with the explicit ethnic framing.

In the full speech, Omar discussed what he presented as the Coast’s long struggle with being marginalised, inequality, taxation, healthcare, housing, education and the political and economic exclusion of ordinary Kenyans. Referring to grievances that had persisted across successive governments, he said: ‘We gave this memorandum to Kenyatta, we gave it to Moi, now we are giving it to you; we only change the date, but nothing changes.’ Immediately before the excerpt that circulated online, he referred to a group he called ‘Mabwenyenye’, whom he characterised as ‘those who have sat on our national affairs for 60 years’, before saying: ‘We told them that you will pay more because you stole more.’ He was discussing what he called ‘tax justice’ and ‘equitable taxation’.

Screenshot of @WAN...

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