Not every blogger is worth the government's time
What you need to know:
Far more Kenyans got to know of, or remember, Yassin Juma after he was arrested.
- The best approach to run a clean government and deny fodder to the notorious bloggers who would then be forced to seek other sources of livelihood.
In the recent past, there seems to be a surge in cases of the government cracking down on bloggers who post content considered offensive or a threat to national security
Most of the affected bloggers use social media to share information about senior government officials and their alleged corrupt dealings.
Others have shared data, considered to be sensitive by security agencies, with the recent example being of blogger Yasmin Juma, who allegedly posted photos of KDF soldiers who died in the recent suicide attack on their base in Somalia.
The response from the Kenyan government has been to swiftly round up the suspects and press various charges, with "misuse of a licensed communication system" taken from Section 29 of Kenya Information and Communications Act, being the most popular.
Specifically, Section 29 states as follows:
A person who by means of a licensed telecommunication system—
(a) sends a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or
(b) sends a message that he knows to be false for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another person
commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand shillings, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both.
Whereas the law exists, and is quite clear on how to deal with bloggers who may abuse their freedoms, the government action seems counterproductive. Far more Kenyans got to know of, or remember, Yassin Juma after he was arrested.
Upon discovering the arrest is related to some posted photos, more people will obviously want to view them, and where the intention of a blogger's action is to increase followers and eyeballs on his online content, this cycle of events fits neatly into that intention.
In short, Yasmin’s arrest raised his profile and online traffic, counteracting the government’s intentions of suppressing his work.
Furthermore, such bloggers quickly become "poster boys" of what the opposition and human rights groups are now referring to as the systematic and deliberate move by the government to claw back the gains and freedoms enshrined in our 2010 Constitution.
This, of course, does not mean that the government should not pursue prosecution. It may be useful, however, to pause and evaluate which cases are worth pursuing and which ones are a complete waste of public resources.
More importantly, the global reality of new media makes it difficult to achieve intended legal outcomes, assuming the bench ruled in favour of government.
If a blogger were to be found guilty and ordered to pull down the offending posts, such posts would continue to exist on many other sites, scattered across the globe.
Even the mighty American CIA was unable to technically take down the extremely sensitive, illegally acquired data that Edward Snowden shared publicly. It is unlikely that the government of Kenya would do any better when faced with a similar challenge.
A better, but perhaps more controversial approach, is the use of official government bloggers to float alternative narratives within the blogosphere that would mitigate the impact of negative publicity.
However, the best approach is to run a clean government and deny fodder to the notorious bloggers, who would then be forced to seek other sources of livelihood.
