Farah Maalim: Foul mouth MP with no regard for morality

Morality is a favourite subject for Farah Maalim, the fire-spitting mheshimiwa for Dadaab.

When speaking about the topic, one would believe him to be the most morally upright of Kenya’s citizens. He lashes out at those he believes to be morally depraved and almost elevates himself as a person to be emulated.

It is doubtful that many would want to imitate the man who speaks as though he swallowed a subwoofer, a man who hardly whispers.

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Maybe then, he was someone the younger generation would have looked up to, a deputy speaker who oversaw Parliament sittings involving what many consider good debaters. When he made a comeback in 2022, Maalim reflected on days past. 

“The quality of debate and the content was massive,” he said in a TV interview.

Indeed, the quality of debate has since plummeted. MPs nowadays have time to discuss issues like animal farts. Instead of focusing on issues that matter to the citizenry, they are more interested in hurling profanities. Maalim is guilty of the latter.

From the sunroof of a vehicle and breathing fire into a microphone he probably did not need, the MP called Kenyans young enough to be his grandchildren their mothers’ private body parts.

“Is he (President William Ruto) seated on your mother’s seat?” Maalim posed after delivering unprintables.

His tongue earned him the sack from former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper party as its deputy leader, with Kalonzo expressing shock at Maalim’s words.

“He used to be a reformist and I campaigned for him in Dadaab. It is heavy on my heart that he can make such utterances,” Kalonzo regretted.

But it was no surprise that the 69-year-old would utter such profanity to people whose only crime was to call Ruto “Must Go” and others who may have exaggerated the Head of State’s facial features in AI-generated caricatures.

Last July, Maalim had a solution to tame growing public dissent against the government.

“If I was the President, I would have slaughtered them, 5000 of them daily,” Maalim said about Generation Z protesters who stormed Parliament a month earlier.

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission, a body with more regrets than Internet service providers, summoned Maalim over his remarks. The MP has been in trouble for what he said before. 

Ten years ago, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations summoned him over allegations of incitement when he questioned a swoop of suspected terrorists that he said targeted one community. He had claimed the government was manufacturing insecurity to please Western powers.

Maalim was not always so. He once used to call out those he believed did not mean well for Kenyans. Some eight years ago, he had wanted Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, then Garissa Township MP, arrested over alleged incitement of one community against another.

Maalim had his sights set on unseating Duale, a job he thought was easier than bagging the Garissa senatorial seat back then. Losing once to the late former Senator Yusuf Haji was enough to hint to the former Lagdera MP that he should perhaps limit his dreams.

In Duale’s words, Maalim had shown up to the DCI headquarters with the media to record a statement on the alleged incitement but lacked “the courtesy to enter the CID offices and record the statement”.

“I want to tell my competitors in very clear terms. Please, you compete with me on the platform of development and national unity but not on the platform where you concoct fake clips, which are not audible,” Duale said then.

Whether or not he is a moral authority, Maalim shows a liking for peculiar wishes for persons he does not like.