SOCIAL MEDIA AND HATE SPEECH

A photo showing people using different social social media platforms. Occasionally, some social media users in Kenya find themselves in the wrong side of the law.

SOCIAL MEDIA SHOULD BE REGULATED

By Maritim Kipngetich

Arresting people who use social media wrongly has been in the news headlines in Kenya in the past couple of years. Facebook, twitter and blog are the main social media platforms that people have been using to attack the bigwigs in government by critising their actions.

It has not been an enjoyable thing to those who are caught perpetuating hate speech and derogatory messages in the social media, since most of them have had to part with thousands of shillings imposed on them as fines and bounds.

The arrest of Abraham Kimutai in his office in Mombasa has rekindled a heated debate among the members of the public. People took to social media to condemn the manner in which Mr. Kimutai was arrested with some saying the arrest was tantamount to what used to happen during KANU regime.

He was never told the reason of his arrest until the time he was taken to a police station in Nairobi. His right to information was, however, infringed. He was later informed that he was arrested because in used his social media, blog, to post hate speech. He stayed in police custody for hours before he was released on bond.

Moses Kuria, a Member of Parliament for Gatundu South, has been accused on several occasions to have used his facebook and twitter accounts to perpetuate divisive politics. He has been in and out of court because of the same. He recently published an apology by using a biblical scripture found in Genesis that some people interpreted in different ways.

Should there be laws that regulate the use of social media? This question has several different responses depending on how one uses social media. For my case, I proposed that there should be laws to control the use of social media just the way we have laws that control news and feature content of the mainstream media houses. Kenya would have an article in the constitution giving some limitations on the use of social media. If that is not the case, parliament should enact a law that regulates the use of the same.