Reverend Samuel Kobia, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) chairperson, has confirmed plans to arrest a leader for ignoring their summons.
Speaking to a local TV station on Wednesday night, May 28, 2025, Kobia indicated that for the last year, only three individuals have snubbed their summons.
Out of the three, Kobia told the TV station that two went undercover and are being sought, while one is actively being tracked for arrest.
He, however, did not reveal the name of the leader being tracked for arrest.
He elaborated that NCIC recommends an arrest if a summoned person ignores their reminder.
“As NCIC, we stick to the law, and for us, it does not matter who you are. If we summon a Kenyan and they refuse to honour our summons, we remind them once. If, after reminding them, they don’t come, then we can recommend arrest, which is done by DCI,” Kobia stated.
“All that we have summoned in the last one year, for example, only three have refused to come, and of those ones, one is being sought and would be arrested anytime now, and the other two went underground; we are looking for them,” he added.
Not politically motivated
At the same time, Kobia noted that the commission was struggling to shake off the tag that most of their summons are politically motivated.
He indicated that the narrative had been widely perpetuated but insisted that it was not how NCIC operates.
“NCIC is not biased in favour of anybody. For us, we deal with Kenyans as citizens. When a Kenyan utters words that equate to hate speech, we don’t summon them because they belong to this party or the government. They are Kenyans who happen to be a member of a political party or to be shown to be of the other side of the government,” Kobia reiterated.
State of cohesion
At the same time, he revealed that the commission had been carrying out research on cohesion in the country.
He explained that one of the preliminary findings is that there was a trust deficit in the country. According to Kobia, unemployment, especially among the youth, was among the issues bedeviling the country, together with structural inequalities.
“The trust deficit is very evident in Kenya. Kenyans don’t trust their leaders, institutions, and there is mutual distrust between the leadership and the people, so that is one problem we need to deal with if we have to improve on our cohesion,” Kobia detailed.
He however lauded President William Ruto for apologising during prayer breakfast indicating that it was one among the steps required to rebuild cohesion in the country.
