Mining and Blue Economy Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho has hit back at Kenyans opposing Raila Odinga’s African Union (AU) Commission Chairmanship bid.
Speaking in Manga, Taita-Taveta County, on Tuesday, December 3, Joho termed the criticism as unpatriotic and driven by petty politics.
“How can I sit and look at social media, seeing a Kenyan who doesn’t know anything post that Raila Odinga must fall? Talking about AU. How unpatriotic can you be as Kenyans that even one of your own, who has a chance to lead AU, you’re saying they must fall? Because of petty politics? We will come for you, my friend,” he remarked.
Joho also addressed backlash he received online on Monday evening, reiterating that social media criticism is detrimental to the country’s progress.
“Yesterday, I said the country won’t progress with all the criticism coming from social media. The project we are launching here today—was it Facebook that launched it? Or Twitter? Or TikTok? Yesterday, they came at me saying they wanted to ‘greet’ me and sent me Ksh1 each. Please, today send me Ksh100 or Ksh200,” he quipped.
On the same event Hassan Joho took a swipe at Kenyans threatening to expose him through the internet following his controversial sentiments against idle social media users.
The former Mombasa Governor said he would not be intimidated to change his stance against Kenyans criticising the government through the internet.
Addressing a meeting attended by President William Ruto, the mining CS vowed to take action against those using the internet to vilify Ruto’s administration.
According to Joho, he received several messages from Kenyans who sent him threats on Monday, December 2, to coerce him to change his opinion about internet users.
“Yesterday they came to me at night, they said they wanted to punish me and sent me Ksh1 each but I want to tell them that they should do the same today and even send me more money,” Joho stated.
“This is the only country where someone takes to social media to negatively comment about their leaders and use negative images to predict their fate,” he added.
