A lawyer representing the Human Rights Commission called a talk by American speaker Ayo Kimathi “hate propaganda” as the hearing into his placement on the stop list entered its third day yesterday.

Addressing the Supreme Court, Allan Doughty said council for Mr Kimathi was attempting to “excuse the inexcusable”.

Mr Kimathi, who refers to himself as the “Irritated Genie”, was one of two presenters brought to the island by David Tucker for a presentation on African culture.

However, his speech drew harsh criticism for describing homosexuality as a cancer that originated from white Europeans along with other forms of “sexual deviance” including child molestation, bestiality, rape and interracial sex.

Senator Michael Fahy, then Minister for Home Affairs, subsequently placed Mr Kimathi on the stop list and the Human Rights Commission announced that they would investigate the event.

However, Mr Kimathi and Mr Tucker launched a legal action against the minister and the commission, attacking the constitutionality of their actions given the protection of free speech.

On Monday lawyer Eugene Johnston, representing Mr Kimathi and Mr Tucker, argued that while the presentation may have been offensive, it fell short of being hate speech.

But Lauren Sadler-Best, representing the Government, said the speech by Mr Kimathi was replete with comments attacking white people, homosexuals and interracial relations.

As the hearing continued yesterday, Mr Doughty urged Chief Justice Ian Kawaley to view the video recording of Mr Kimathi’s presentation, noting that both council had accused the other of “cherry-picking” comments from the speech.

He said: “There was a lot of talk of history in the video, much of which I thought was fair but interwoven throughout that presentation was the idea that the black race is being thwarted by an illness called ‘white sex’.”

Referring to comments made by Mr Kimathi, Mr Doughty said: “This is classic hate propaganda. There’s no other way to dress it up.

“It’s hate propaganda, pure and simple. It’s designed to separate people, to make it about ‘us’ and ‘them’. It’s designed to sow ill will so the targeted group is marginalised and dehumanised.

“The way that white people were described in this was for the purpose of vilifying them. The purpose was to paint white people as being subhuman oppressors.”

He said that the long history of the slave trade was inexcusable, horrid and that is must not be forgotten, but the question the court should consider is if the speech had exposed a group of people to hatred, arguing that Mr Kimathi had crossed that line.

“I would invite all white persons to stare that in the face,” he said. “I accept that we cannot simply say things have changed. The pain is real.

“We have to at least try to understand the hurt that was caused and wake up to the fact that there remains a gross inequality in society.”

Regarding the Human Rights Commission investigation, he said that the executive officer only needed to believe there was a prima facie case to refer the matter to the tribunal and only acts as a “gate keeper”.

“If it is a bogus complaint, the tribunal have the right to dismiss it at the first opportunity,” he added.

• On occasion The Royal Gazette may decide to not allow comments on a story that we deem might inflame sensitivities. As we are legally liable for any slanderous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.