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Cyber Bullies Target Kenyan Women

Cyber Bullies Target Kenyan Women
Cyber Bullies Target Kenyan Women

Cyber criminals have taken to targetting Kenyan women online. The lack of effective legislation and technical expertise has only made their work easier.

For a seasoned politician like Kenyaโ€™s Rachael Shebesh, few things hold her back from rallying for womenโ€™s rights. But when it comes to furthering her platform on social media โ€“ it is the one thing that this Nairobi County womenโ€™s representative avoids.

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Like all women hooked on technology here, this hardliner politician has not been spared the muck of cyber bullying.

She has endured demeaning attacks suggesting that she is a feminist โ€œnot fit for leadershipโ€, and has had to face comments full of sexual innuendo on social media sites.

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โ€œCyber crime [and bullying] is targeting everybody. I am a politician and I know we get targeted and that is why I keep off social media,โ€ Shebesh says.

According to the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet), a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation, cyber crime and bullying against Kenyan women is on the rise.

The organisation says that this involves incidents of cyber stalking, sexual harassment, persistent abusive mobile messages, sex trafficking and humiliating comments that reinforce gender stereotypes.

There have also been cases of professional sabotage, identity theft and incidents where intimate photos and videos have been used to blackmail women.

โ€œThey seem to go hand-in-hand with women and girlsโ€™ lack of knowledge of the risks and the extent of the damage that they continue to sustain through cyber crime,โ€ says a KICTANet report released in June 2013 titled, โ€œWomen and Cybercrime: the Dark Side of ICTsโ€.

No legislative framework

This East African nation lacks legislation to police cyber crime. Last year, the Business Daily Africaย reportedย that the countryโ€™s cyber security remained one of the weakest in the world and that experts were able to โ€œintercept [mobile phone] voice traffic and obtain temporary secret keys for some subscribers, revealing the high level exposure.โ€

Currently, Kenyaโ€™s laws are unable to effectively prosecute cyber crime and online hate speech. This is why the Kenya Internet Governance Forum Steering Committee (KIGFSC) is now pushing for the draft Cyber-Crime and Computer Related Offences Bill 2014 to be signed into law. The draft will only be presented to parliament in March.

KIGFSC chairperson, Alice Munyua, says that the legislation is expected to protect all Kenyans, but there is a need to specifically protect women from cyber attacks.

โ€œCyber crime affects women differently,โ€ argues Munyua. โ€œThe cyber security bill should have a few clauses that deal specifically with how cyber crime affects women.โ€

However, not everyone is convinced that Kenya can deliver on this legislation. The Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK), the agency charged with drafting the bill, refuses to share details of the legislation with the public.

And the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) believes that Kenya should first engage in finalising theย African Union Convention on Cyber Security, which covers issues of e-transactions, cyber security, personal data protection and combating cyber crime.

According to IAWRT, once African countries become signatories to the convention, they will be bound by international law to have their own legislation in place.

โ€œThe convention is expected to serve as a blueprint and guide countries to develop cyber security legislations,โ€ says Grace Githaiga,the vice-chairperson ofย IAWRT .

Githaiga says that the convention was originally meant to have been signed this month, but the process was postponed until June because of Kenyaโ€™s involvement with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Kenyaโ€™s President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have been charged by the ICC for crimes against humanity, which occurred during the countryโ€™s disputed 2007 elections. Ruto is already on trial while Kenyattaโ€™s case has been postponed.

Serious Crime

The Kenya Police Service insists that cyber violence against women is classified as a serious crime.

โ€œOfficers have been trained on cyber investigation at the Criminal Investigation Department and are well equipped to handle such cases,โ€ says Marcela Wanjiru Andaje, the superintendent of police in charge of community policing, gender and child protection.

However, Kenyaโ€™s office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) acknowledges thatย women who are victims of cyber crime and bullying very rarely report the crime. The DPP receives more cases of child pornography than ones of cyber crime and intimidation against women.

But Shebesh believes that government agencies like the CCK and the Kenya Police Service can easily contain this emerging crime.

But, she says, the process of seeking justice is too lengthy for anyoneโ€™s comfort.

โ€œToday, if you want to catch someone who has abused you through social media you can. But you have to go through a process that is too taxing for the ordinary Kenyan and so they normally leave it,โ€ says Shebesh.

By David Njagi,-rnw.nl/africa

 

Cyber Bullies Target Kenyan Women

 

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