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The Nairobian

"Not my words, they were edited," Farah Maalim on viral video mess

Politics

By Denis Omondi | Jul 09, 2024

Dadaab MP Farah Maalim has distanced himself from an undated viral video depicting him making inflammatory statements while discrediting the Kenyan Gen Z movement.

According to the lawmaker, the video was taken at a recent book launch event he attended in Somalia but has been manipulated to distort the sequence of his words.

“It’s all editing, cutting and pasting, and putting words together. It's basically a lot of nonsense," said Maalim before swiftly quipping, “It is Somalis who would do that for other reasons because I also weighed in on the politics of Somalia.”

In the video, a man who is supposedly Maalim can be heard saying he would have used strong-arm tactics to fell 5,000 Gen Z protesters, every day of the demonstrations, for attempting to overthrow the government.

“That 5,000 figure was in line with what I said about the serious slaughter that happens whenever there is an attempt at a revolution to try to forcefully take over the government,” he said.

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Maalim, while appearing on KTN News on Tuesday morning, insisted that the point of the video did not represent the true picture of the substance of his speech at the said event.

The video that has elicited public rage, comes on the back of the MP’s sustained talk against the means used by the younger Kenyans in exerting pressure on the government in a bid to correct the wrongs in governance.

“When you occupy Statehouse and Parliament, two constitutional institutions that are a bedrock for the stability of the country and our democracy, that is a coup,” he said about the June 25 invasion of Parliament Buildings by the protesters.

“We’ve seen this headless thing called a popular movement, even a revolution, in many places including Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia. The results are always invariably devastating.”