What you should know as Kenya considers outlawing pornography

What you should know as Kenya considers outlawing pornography

Individuals caught sharing pornography on the Internet in Kenya may soon face a 25-year prison sentence, a Ksh 20 million fine, or both.

This is proposed in a bill currently before Kenya's Parliament called the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime (Amendment) Bill, 2021.

This bill seeks to amend Kenya's current Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act 2018, which has been subjected to rigorous scrutiny in the country's courts.

Apart from the initial proposal, the bill also gives the government the authority to block access to certain websites in Kenya. Additionally, the bill regulates online activities associated with terrorism, cultism, and religious extremism.

Adult pornography is tolerated in Africa, despite the continent's predominantly religious population. Only a few countries have enacted legislation prohibiting adult pornographic activities.

However, laws prohibiting child pornography are prevalent, as they are included in the majority of cybercrime legislation in accordance with the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime. This is provided for in Section 24 of Kenya's Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act.

On the other hand, Kenyan law contains no explicit prohibitions against the sale, possession, or production of pornography; it has thus far done nothing to curb online distribution.

The government announced plans in November 2018 to filter pornographic websites and regulate films with explicit content in order to prevent teenage pregnancies. Kenya's Communications Authority was in charge of that mandate.

Joe Mucheru, the then-ICT Cabinet Secretary, stated that the government addressed the issue through the use of advanced technology. However, it is unknown what technology was used or whether the plans were carried out at all.

This new amendment concerning Internet pornography raises concerns about the government's implementation strategy. This could be accomplished through the enhancement of the National Computer and Cybercrime Coordination Committee's authority.

The Committee may make recommendations regarding websites that may become inaccessible in the country. Though they have not been named, certain pornographic websites are expected to be included in the list.

This again raises a number of issues. What criteria would be used to determine which sites should be retained? What is the government's motivation for attempting to censor the Internet? What would this censorship of the Internet mean for the country's citizens? Let us attempt to address a few of these points.

Kenya and Internet censorship

Unlike several African countries — Libya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Eritrea, for example — Kenya is rarely mentioned in discussions about Internet censorship.

As of March 2019, an Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) test conducted in Kenya revealed no evidence of censorship or website blocking.

Concerning Internet access in Kenya, issues such as insufficient infrastructure, low penetration rates, and slow speeds abound, to the point where censorship is unnecessary.

This contributes to the surprise surrounding the proposed decision to restrict access to certain websites in the country.

The purpose of this provision, as written in the proposed bill, is to broaden the Committee's authority to include the ability to make such recommendations. This explains nothing about the government's intention to censor the internet.

By interpreting the amendment bill's language, we can deduce that the Kenyan government intends to apply this restriction to its existing prohibitions on Internet pornography, terrorism, cultism, and religious extremism.

According to Aden Duale, Garissa Township MP and bill sponsor, incidents such as unsolicited sexually explicit content distribution and related cases will be curtailed. He asserts that the bill will make a significant contribution to family preservation.

While this is commendable, organizations such as Reporters Without Borders have warned against Internet filtering for years.

This is because, in addition to concerns about Internet freedom and neutrality, it may result in slower connection speeds and the blocking of irrelevant content.

These legitimate concerns undoubtedly raise some eyebrows regarding Kenya's Computer Misuse and Cybercrime (Amendment) Bill.