Be careful, that short phone message may send you to jail

From jilted lovers, disenchanted business partners and betrayed employees to friends turned foes, sending offensive mobile phone text messages has become a fact of modern life in Kenya.

And it is easy to send an insult to another person through a short message service (SMS) instead of picking up a phone and talking, experts say.

Communication experts say one does not need much courage to launch an SMS attack, as compared to making a phone call because the former is easier, cheaper and less confrontational.

“It’s one-way traffic and far from admirable,” says Chris Harrison, a communication expert at Young & Rubicam Brands in Nairobi. “Of course, it’s cheaper than a phone call and the other person doesn’t have the luxury of hanging up on you.”

The number of mobile phone users arraigned in Kenyan courts for sending abusive text messages is on the increase, an indication of how cellphones are changing the way we live.

Many offenders are being charged with sending an offensive message by means of a licensed telecommunication system, contrary to Section 29(A) of the Kenya Communications Act of 1998.

Offensive message

This section refers to an offensive message as one or the other matter that is “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character.” An offensive text attracts a sentence of upto three months or a fine upto Sh50,000, or both.

Against a background of anger and disillusion, some mobile phone users are taking time to write what they could never have said by word of mouth.

“One has to sit down and compose the text because the intention at that moment is to hurt, and painfully do so,” says Winnie Kitetu, a Nairobi-based psychologist. “One is insane and not thinking well at the moment.”

Psychologists point out that people send offensive texts when they are angered and have no truth in what they are thinking about, but will never indulge in a dialogue.

“This is learned behaviour, and it is something to do with early childhood and what they learned,” she adds. “Their aim is normally to prod the other person, and the other party may reveal a lot of things to this person, even things which were not known to the abuser.”

The psychologist says that these people lack problem-solving skills, which they were supposed to learn during youth. “Ever since they were young, they have seen and watched people resolve issues through fights and insults, so they learn through modelling and imitation.”

Many people have been arraigned in courts countrywide and this, according to police, is just a fraction of cases never brought to the limelight. Even though the piece of legislation has been in existence for a decade, in the past two months, more than 10 people have been accused of the crime.

Although some people have pleaded guilty and convicted, a few others have denied the charge and the cases are going on.

Silly and mannerless

Some of the texts the Saturday Nation has had access to are: “Sorry, I am not stupid..., “Mungiki will kill you and your family…”, “Let your foolishness guide you till you die…”, “You are an idiot, silly and mannerless…”, “Get yourself a prostitute, not me, you idiot man…”, “You will never see my naked body again…” — the list is endless.

The messages range from death threats to insults referring to genitals. But most have to do with broken love.

Saturday Nation investigations have found out that the messages are exchanges between relatives, friends as well as parted lovers and business partners.

And it appears as though most of the accused are women, because most women, psychologists say, love from the bottom of their hearts and give all their trust, and when their trust is betrayed, they react with a lot of emotion, driving them into temporary insanity.

“While in that state, they stop caring and usually feel that words may disappear if they call, and that the only way out is to sit down and write whatever their feeling is at that moment,” says Ms Kitetu.

On November 2, at the Nairobi lawcourts, Ms Regina Nyambura Muniu was charged with sending an abusive text to Ms Stella Gathoni.

The accused, who admitted the offence, said the complainant’s husband had promised to marry her, but “he later rejected me, “breaking my heart.”

Another message deemed to be abusive and brought to the limelight is one which earned Esther Mwende Chele a Sh30,000 fine or three months’ jail. She early this month sent Mr Stephen Ngumbao Kithuka a text, ridiculing his penis.

Few people are most likely aware of the existence of a law that prohibits improper use of a mobile phone.

This, according to communication experts, could be capitalised on by mobile phone companies. “Wouldn’t it be great if one of the mobile phone companies took up this challenge and gave guidelines on text abuse?” wonders Mr Harrison.

Most text insults come from people well known to each other, and have been in a relationship over a period of time. The relationship can continue to grow because the frequency of meeting is high and the stories being shared are deep and private, say psychologists.

“This may last long because, by the time they discover, they have cultivated feelings for each other and have known each other deeply, and this can bring betrayal,” says Ms Kitetu.

Although a decade ago, text was simply used as a mere medium of communication, today, with most messages costing as little as Sh1, it has become the weapon of choice used by cellphone owners to vent anger on others.

Mr Harrison says the mobile phone has transformed the entire world, especially the developing world, in which freedom of speech was limited in the past.

Most people, he explains, use text messages and the telephone in general to move the society forward. Sadly, however, some users with ill-intentions have a ready outlet for their urges.

Mobile phone operators say text messaging is a private communication medium between one customer and another. But, they add, they hardly monitor contents of the SMSs. All mobile phone service givers in Kenya — Safaricom, Zain, Orange and Yu offer SMS services.

“Safaricom does not in any way monitor the contents of SMS as this is private communication,” says chief executive Michael Joseph.

And since they do not monitor private communication via the SMS, he cannot comment on the prevalence rate of text abuse, he adds.

Although cynics think regulation hinders effective communication and stifles freedom of expression, experts say self-regulation, such as under the Kenya Information and Communication Act, helps to lay down guidelines on behaviour in the society.