Nairobi — Three senators have condemned alleged tribal remarks by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, warning that such statements risk inflaming ethnic tensions and urging Parliament to address the matter through a substantive motion.

The issue arose during Thursday afternoon's Senate sitting, where Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina cautioned political leaders against making public statements that compare communities, saying such rhetoric could revive memories of the 2007/08 post-election violence.

"I heard my good friend and the CS for Health making a comparison of two communities in public. It is wrong. We should not be making such comments, failure to which this country will go back to 2007 when there was post-election violence. Remember the times we are in ahead of elections," Ole Kina said.

He urged leaders to reject tribal politics and instead promote national unity.

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"Let's do away with this issue of tribalism. We should not let our younger generations look at themselves from the tribe point of view, but let's unite as one and not divide Kenyans."

Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua also faulted the Cabinet Secretary's alleged remarks, saying leaders must exercise restraint in their public statements.

"We are headed to very dangerous ground, and utterances of our leaders should be checked. The utterances of CS Duale, trying to raise one community over another--we know what happened in 2007. We must put Duale on the spot. The utterances he made were wrong," Wambua said.

Garissa Senator Abdul Haji said he had watched the video after it was shared with him by Senator Wambua and described its contents as disturbing.

"Senator Wambua has given me that clip and I have watched it, and it is very bad that a leader can go ahead and make such utterances. If it were justified, I would be here defending CS Duale, but I am not. I will wait for Senator Wambua to come up with a motion so that we can ventilate the motion on Duale's remarks," he said.

However, Senate Speaker Amason Kingi stopped further discussion, reminding senators that Cabinet Secretaries cannot be debated on the floor without a substantive motion.

"Don't discuss a Cabinet Secretary without moving a motion. Kindly file a motion and pursue it as required by law," Kingi directed.

The senators were reacting to a widely circulated video in which Duale is alleged to have compared the Somali and Kikuyu communities by population before recounting historical grievances over the treatment of Somalis by successive administrations.

In the video, Duale is heard saying:

"Do you hear me? Somalis are a majority tribe. We are 40 million. Our friends (Kikuyus) are only 3 million and they only live in Kenya."

He further alleges that the administrations of former Presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Mwai Kibaki discriminated against Somalis, including by denying many the opportunity to obtain national identity cards, before praising President William Ruto for directing that Somali, Muslim and other Kenyan youths be treated equally in the issuance of IDs.

Duale has not publicly responded to the criticism raised in the Senate during Thursday's sitting.