“Peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice.” ― Martin Luther King, Jnr. At the end of 2007 and early 2008, Kenyans went after each other with clubs and machetes after the announcement of disputed presidential elections. In 2013, the war has taken a different shape; it has gone online, in the form of what is commonly called “hate speech”.
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), the body charged with facilitating and promoting peaceful co-existence and integration, describes hate speech as “…the use of threatening, inciting, abusive or insulting words or behavior, or display of any written material with the intention of stirring up ethnic hatred.” The Penalty for that is a fine not exceeding one million shillings or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or both.
But this does not seem to deter Kenyans from spewing hate in the social media. The NCIC recently announced that it was investigating four individuals for hate speech and incitement. So far, none of them has been taken to court.
In the last week of March, a blogger by the name of Robert Alai presented himself at the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters. He was allegedly being sought to answer to claims that he participated and promoted hate speech and made false accusations against Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary and head of the civil service. Amazingly, Kenyans started a twitter hash tag to support and call for the release of Robert Alai. Others however called for punitive action to be taken against him.
The hate speech exhibited in social media is very fierce, especially between the supporters of the two leading presidential contenders in the just ended elections. Unfortunately in Kenya, political contests always take an ethnic dimension. The hate speech online has also taken an ethnic dimension.
In January, the government named blogs, facebook groups and individuals who are allegedly perpetrating hate speech. The Permanent Secretary for Information Dr. Bitange Ndemo said the Kenya government will work with Interpol to track those outside the country spreading hate speech.
In response to the government’s move, the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE), while lauding the government’s efforts, added that tracking hate-mongers must not be done at the expense of bloggers’ right to exercise freedom of expression. “A distinction, however, must be placed between a blogger and a commenter. A commenter is not necessarily a blogger. Therefore, a blanket condemnation of all bloggers is the wrong way to go,” said the statement.
A blogger, Rayhab Wangari, says that she is shocked by the stuff people post on social media, especially when some of the people in question are intellectuals. “I believe people are angry or jubilant, I do not dispute that. But that doesn’t mean that people should vent out their anger on the whole population…I am worried because the election is over, but people’s friendships of many years have ended. Why? Because of the things that they have posted on social media.”
Notwithstanding the efforts by the government, Rayhab is of the opinion that the Kenya government has done little to deal with the issue. “I have seen people being attacked on their facebook pages or profiles and nothing is being done. I worry about the future of this country if people can talk to each other like that. I believe that the country needs to go through counselling and reconciliation like what happened in Rwanda,” she says. Rayhab expresses the feelings of many Kenyans. Many have befriended some of their friends on facebook.
Fighting the menace is proving to be a tall order for the government, basically because they lack the resources and the capacity to do so. One of the measures that the government has taken is to have all Internet Protocol (IP) addresses registered by internet service providers to help trace the use of hate speech on the internet. The government has asked mobile operators to give each device – including cell phones and tablets – unique IP addresses to ease identification of users.
Psychologist Patrick Obel, a student counselor at Pan Africa Christian University in Nairobi, gives a number of reasons for the rise of hate speech. He says the country has failed to provide safe avenues for people to express themselves without fear of being blacklisted by security agents.
“We failed to empower our law enforcement systems and institutions. This is evidenced by the fact that we have not had any serious prosecutions of the high and mighty even when it seems clear that someone needed to be prosecuted after the post election violence (in 2007/ 08),” he says. He adds that the cost of pursuing the legal process is limiting, quite technical and mysterious to the common man, hence making it easier to speak out and find appeasement at that level (social media).
Obel says that the use of social media will in the short term bring relief for those who speak out because it will cause the release of pent up emotions. However, the long term effect of this is that it will lead to disillusionment because the users will quickly realise that whatever they are saying does not receive expected and corresponding response or actions in the bigger system. Since nothing seems to be changing regardless of what is said, the users may feel hopeless and remain in despair.
“When required in future to raise any crucial concerns or suggestions, they will have no incentive for it. This will only promote impunity on the one hand, and apathy on the other, in the society,” says the psychologist. He is against the use of the law to silence the people. He says that people should be provided with a forum in which they can air their views and express their feelings, where they feel safe and protected.
“The law only seems to protect a small minority of the rich and powerful in society. It is intimidating and dominating on the weak that have no means to seek for legal services to defend their cases in a court of law. Kenyans need to be made to feel truly safe to participate in nation building in all possible forms. They should not just be used to accumulate votes for those who will in turn use the law to intimidate them,” says Obel.
Definitely, the wounds that have been open will be hard to heal. Does a society need to go through this kind of pain every 5 years?
The above article appeared in New Internationalist online on this link – http://newint.org/blog/2013/04/09/kenya-election-social-media-hate-speech/
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