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YouTube and social media platforms should consider banning menace, Cosmo Choy for his unprintable vulgar insults directed at Kenya’s founding First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta and his litany of hate-filled and crude videos.
Even though public figures have less protection from public attacks, Choy’s crude and prolonged attack on the first lady appears to violate YouTube’s harassment and cyberbullying policies.
Youtube cyberbullying policy states in part as follows:
Content that threatens individuals is not allowed on YouTube. We also don’t allow content that targets an individual with prolonged or malicious insults based on intrinsic attributes.
The video posted on March 22 (which we’re not going to post here) has gone viral on various WhatsApp groups. It has received almost 4000 views and amazingly received 58 likes on Choy’s Youtube channel. Youtube has placed an age restriction on the video based on community guidelines.
Choy is what millennials describe as a crazy boomer, an older person who does not understand how to use social media responsibly but insists on doing it his way.
He is also the kind of person who qualifies for the label “fala mang’aa” someone who cannot deduce the difference when people are laughing with him or at him. While his large following on social media can be viewed as a form of success, his work cannot be shared in polite company, making it pointless.
It’s curious that Choy, who said in an interview that he is a father of five daughters and husband of two wives, seems to always be recording the video by himself. One has to wonder if this is because his family cannot stand his crudeness.
A look at Choy’s YouTube channel reveals he has posted more than 100 videos, most of them containing vile and crude insults which includes juvenile name-calling one would not even expect to hear coming from a child. Almost every video reviewed contains some form of crude and bullying language that violates our social norms and goes against Youtube’s cyberbullying and harassment policies.
Choy, who, according to his Facebook page, is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, has built a large online following by posting nonsensical, crude, insult-laden, and hate-filled video messages targeting President Uhuru Kenyatta and Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
His Facebook page shows he first posted a Facebook-Live video on May 4, 2019, a 7-minute video of him listening to a rhythmic Kisii song while driving that received a lot of likes. He started posting political videos around October 2019.
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He has since posted more than 100 such nonsensical videos, many featuring himself while driving or in a vehicle.
Choy joined Youtube on January 9, 2021. He debuted with a video insulting the president. He followed that video with another video insulting Kenyatta as a drunkard, using an altered image showing Kenyatta’s eyes as demonic red.
While he is a Ruto supporter, he has not spared him crude insults and slander. In a video posted on July 4, 2019, on Mutembei TV, Choy had no love for Ruto calling him a thief and alleging his donations to churches are stolen money. The slanderous attack on Ruto is still circulating on various WhatsApp groups to this day, illustrating the damage such content can have on a person.
Choy’s attack on Mama Ngina has taken a similar presence on social media. On Youtube alone, the video has been reposted on more than 10 channels. One such posting on the KNM Youtube channel has received more than 5,500 views.
During his recent visit to the US, in a video posted on March 2, 2022, Choy could be seen in a video posing with the Kenya Kwanza team, with Ababu Namwamba, Ruto’s campaign international relations lead, making a cameo.
It’s unclear whether Ruto has a close personal relationship with Choy, and he did not acknowledge him as they entered the building. Still, in a February 27, 2022 video, Ruto recognizes him and calls him by name, and the two men shared a hug at an Airport in Washington DC.
In his videos, Choy often makes baseless slanderous comments about public figures in Kenya, focusing mainly on Kenyatta and Odinga.
He has a demeaning attitude toward Odinga and Luos and often speaks about Luos condescendingly and disparagingly. In a video posted on August 28, 2021, Choy makes a tribalistic statement against Luos.
“Wajaluo ni watu wajinga sana, kama huyu Raila Odinga,” Choy said.
He attacks Luos because their culture does not recognize male circumcision as a rite of passage into adulthood.
It appears in Choy’s mind, circumcision is the only barometer for a man to demonstrate maturity. Ironically, he does not see his crudeness and backward comments about women as immature and retrogressive. Sadly, circumcision has not helped Choy. Unless Choy has an interest in other men’s genitals, his crude commentary geared toward inciting hatred toward Luos is puzzling.
Judging from his inability to discern the right things to say in public, he can hardly be considered mature, because he behaves and reasons like a child.
Choy’s vulgar tirade and shocking language are never used in Kenyan social settings. Such language is not entertained even in private Kenyan conversations among peers. Kenyans have developed euphemisms for private parts, and it’s taboo to speak of a woman in such a disrespectful manner.
While Choy is not alone in this mindset, he is one of the most vocal using social media platforms to spread hate and such negative innuendos.
Choy’s sexist attitude toward women is something from the medieval ages. Even after spending decades in the US, where society emphasizes respect for women and tolerance for people of different cultures, Choy seems stuck in a cycle of his crude ways. There is very little difference between the Choy of 2019 with the current one. It’s almost as if a wicked witch has frozen him in time and shoved the same insults in his mouth to be repeated over and over.
He may be getting away with it because he mostly speaks in Kiswahili in his videos, and nobody has complained to his employer about their hateful content, but he may be running out of luck.
A fanatic supporter of Deputy President William Ruto, Choy’s attack on Mama Ngina followed her speech at a funeral, where she urged the audience to listen to her son, the president. The founding First lady told her audience Kenyatta would not mislead them.
Choy interpreted the statement as an effort to boost former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the hotly-contested Mt. Kenya region.
In a bizarre rant, Choy crossed the line shocking even his followers. He said he was sending a warning to Mama Ngina and then proceeded to crudely insult her multiple times in a clip lasting almost two minutes.
“I Cosmo Kipchumba Choy, I approve this message 100 percent, thank you, you,” Choy concluded, appearing not to realize the impact of his insult, not just on Mama Ngina, but on women.
Choy has since posted an apology, but strangely, he has not taken down the offensive video, making his apology appear moot, insincere, and irrelevant.
But Mama Ngina is not the only prominent Kenyan woman Choy has crudely insulted and slandered. In a video posted on his Youtube channel on January 22, 2021 (Min 18:36), he attacked Kitui’s governor Charity Ngilu calling her a prostitute and making unfounded slanderous allegations against her. He has made similar allegations against multiple other prominent Kenyan women.
He has also used incendiary language toward Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Chairman Wafula Chebukati. In a Facebook post dated October 8, 2019, Choy said Chebukati deserved to be lynched if he mismanaged the Kibra by-election.
“Chebukati ukiiba, kusema ukweli, walahi, mimi naona watu wachukue sheria mkononi ndio hii kitu isifanyike tena, wewe uchomwe,” Choy said. “Uwekwe tyles kabisa, ndio hii uwizi ya kura, ikome.”
Translation: If Chebukati steals the election, the people should take the law into their hands and lynch him. That’s how we stop the stealing of the vote.
Ironically, at the time, Choy was an ODM supporter in favor of the handshake between Odinga and Kenyatta, a reason that he currently cites as the cause of turning against the two handshake partners.
The Ruto campaign has not commented on the controversy.
PUBLIC REACTION
Reactions to the insult have been swift. Women leaders affiliated with Azimio la Umoja held a demonstration in Nairobi demanding respect for Mama Ngina and women. They asked Interior Ministry Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i to deport Choy, whose real name is Cosmas Ombori Monari, according to media reports.
“Tuko nje ya ofisi ya CS Matiang’i, tunamuita a-deport huyo mtu anaitwa Cosmas kutoka America,” Maendeleo Ya Wanawake Chairperson Rahab Mwiu said. “So CS Matiang’i, PS (Karanja) Kibicho, can you deport this man into Kenya, so we talk to him from this ground of Kenya.”
Even his social media followers turned on him.
“Umerogwa? Even if you like Ruto, you can not go losing respect for women and senior women, for that matter, just to please Ruto. Is he your God?” One user asked on Choy’s Facebook page comment section. “When you eventually pay for your sins, I can assure you it will not be a walk in the park!”
Another user responded by reminding Choy Mama Ngina’s stature within the Kenyan society.
“First Lady Mama Ngina is our Queen. She is the reason we have freedom in our Nation,” he said.
The video appears to be an effort to incite hatred toward Mama Ngina, a dangerous prospect considering the charged electoral environment in Kenya, her age, and stature as an iconic figure in Kenya’s history.
Choy’s filthy tirade and shocking language are never used in Kenyan social settings.
Such language is not entertained even in private Kenyan conversations among peers. Kenyans have developed euphemisms for private parts, and it’s taboo to speak of a woman in such a disrespectful manner.
Mothers and women are held in high regard in Kenyan society. That is why Choy’s raw and crude insults disqualify him from being a leader in any capacity, not even as a cattle dip supervisor.
Ruto and Kenya Kwanza must distance themselves from the vulgarity Choy regularly posts and disqualify him from running as MP for Embakassi or any elective position he seeks under the party’s ticket.
There is no excuse for insulting any woman in such a manner, and it’s un-African to disrespect an elderly stateswoman and a national treasure, such as Mama Ngina.
His presence on social media adds no value to our political discourse or our social fabric. His political analysis is mediocre, incoherent, and laughable.
Social media should not be used to insult, bully and harass others.
We cannot normalize or accept this crude behavior.
Choy’s 15 minutes of fame is over. It’s time for him to take a bow off the stage.
There are some things one cannot apologize their way out of, this could be one of them.
Choy is an embarrassment and a menace to society. The Kenyan diaspora should shun Choy and dissociate with him.
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