The East African, Phone Evidence Used in Terror, Treason Case
The reality of a new law in Rwanda permitting tapping of telephone conversations has hit home in the ongoing terror and treason case involving famous Rwandan singer Kizito Mihigo and journalist Cassien Ntamuhanga.
The law was passed in August 2012 with little opposition both in parliament and from the civil society.
On Thursday…
Kenya: Parliament decides to withdraw controversial amendments targeting Public Benefit Organisations (PBO)
The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, 2013, that was under review by the Justice and Legal Affairs Parliamentary Committee – last stage before being passed by Parliament – posed serious threats to the respect and protection of the right to freedom of association in Kenya. The Bill, which was…
Controversial blogger Robert Alai has been arrested and detained by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) officers for an “offensive tweet” accusing a former Siaya Gubernatorial candidate William Oduol of battering his wife.
Alai was charged with posting the “annoying” tweet/message on Twitter contrary to section 29(b) of the Kenya Information and Communications Act CAP. 411A laws of Kenya.
According to the Act,…
Arrest of Kenyan tech blogger Robert Alai has shone a spotlight on the East African nation’s online civil liberties, with experts saying it has illustrated the possible vagueness of the country’s communications law.
Alai, who writes for technology website techmtaa.com, was put behind bars two nights ago by Kenyan police and released on a Khs100,000 yesterday, after he posted a tweet…
The search for 14 bloggers suspected of posting hate messages on the Internet has started.
Six of them had been identified and were being investigated, a media monitoring committee revealed on Wednesday.
The rest use pseudonyms and the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) has been asked to unearth their identities, according to the National Steering Committee on Media Monitoring.
“We were able to…
On Thursday Dr. Mzalendo Kibunja, Head of the National Integration Cohesion Commission (NCIC), announced that one of the new areas of focus for the commissions work will be hate speech on the internet. The commission will begin monitoring social networks and commentaries on news networks for hate speech early as April.
According to the National Integration Cohesion Commission Act of 2008…
By Esther Nakkazi
As the world commemorated International Women’s Day on March 8, Ugandan women rights and information and communication technology (ICT) activists called for cyber policies to be put in place in African countries to protect women against violations of their digital rights.
This comes as the number of nude video recordings and photos taken in private are being increasingly leaked…
In June 2011, Jean Bosco Gasasira, the exiled editor of Umuvugizinewspaper, was sentenced to two and half years in jail for civil disobedience and insulting President Paul Kagameon the online version of his newspaper. In April of the previous year, the print publication of the same newspaper had been suspended for six months for allegedly inciting violence and criticising the…
According to Freedom House, there were reports that online news websites, Umusingi and Umurabyo, were contacted by authorities during 2012 and early 2013 to delete content related to local political affairs and ethnic relations. Umusingi and Inyereri – another online news site – were reportedly blocked on some ISPs. The former was first blocked in 2011 but as of mid…
Internet users in Rwanda are reported to have become more vocal in criticising the government, particularly on social media, probably because of the perceived anonymity of the web. According to Freedom House, in 2012, Rwandans used Twitter to protest a decision by the Kigali City Council to close down a local entertainment venue. In the same year, in response to…