Nairobi lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi and Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale engaged in a tweef on Thursday over the latter’s remarks on the arrest of a Senate employee over an alleged plot by Al-Shabaab to bomb Parliament.
The senate employee, Ali Abdulmajid Ahmed, is being held at Kileleshwa Police Station following an intelligence report that claimed he had been recruited by Al-Shabaab to help plot an attack on Parliament.
Mr Abdullahi fired the first shot when he posted an article by a local newspaper on Twitter in which the Senator is quoted saying that the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) is exposing Parliament to terrorist threats by hiring Somali youths.
FACE SANCTIONS
The article further stated that Senator Khalwale could be sanctioned if he does not substantiate the claims he made during proceedings on Tuesday.
Mr Khalwale responded by tweeting, “Bure kabisa @ahmednasirlaw. Try running for any elective post before you start insinuating mediocrity Ahmed. Stop reading gutter press news.”
A Twitter trend soon started on hashtag #ArrestKhalwale, with some users calling for the senator to be probed over the remarks which they termed as tribal.
Other users however defended Senator Khalwale, saying that he was merely stating an uncomfortable truth.
The Senator posted subsequent updates that called for investigations into how the PSC hires parliamentary staff.
NO APOLOGIES
He insisted that he had no apologies to make over his remarks in Senate.
He tweeted, “@ahmednasirlaw some of us have Kenyans to serve. Am sure you didn’t watch what happened in senate but you are quick to talk nonsense.”
To that Mr Abdullahi responded, “@BoniMtetezi hon you are ranting and revving. Relax. Somalis are Kenyans and have right to work in the senate. Where does ur hatred come from?”
The arrested Senate employee, who is also the vice-chairman of the Pumwani Riyadh Mosque, has been linked to terrorism before.
In 2011, the United Nations Monitoring Group on Eritrea and Somalia linked him to terrorism.
-nairobinews.co.ke
