So, about
those text messages that were spreading hate with impunity: apparently, the government has compiled a list “more than 1700 contacts of individuals who created or forwarded SMS messages to incite ethnic violence,” and it’s “sitting on the desk” of the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Information and Communication, according to an article by Tim Querrengesser in Saturday’s Nation.
The government’s dilemma is what to do with it. Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Information and Communication, laments that “there’s no law governing hate speech over mobile phones, radio and television.”
However, according to the article, Civil Society groups, led by the Kenya National High Commission on Human Rights, drafted a Content Bill last year that would have made hate speech illegal, but although the proposed law was submitted to parliament before last year’s election, it was “shot down.”
Kamanda Mucheke, a Senior Human Rights Officer at the Kenya National High Commission on Human Rights still hopes that “once the dust settles” the content law will be passed.
Although the government allegedly banned live broadcasts in Kenya on account of the “hate speech, misinformation and rumours (that) flowed through the airwaves,” the text messages kept flowing.
There are an estimated 9 million mobile phone users in Kenya. The path to sending SMS messages is a fairly easy one, with the biggest hurdle being that of obtaining a mobile phone. The prices of these continue to dip, and there are now some available in the market for circa 40 US dollars. A mobile phone SIM Card will cost you 1.50 US dollars over the counter and you are not obliged to provide any personal information in the transaction. You can literally buy one for every hour of the day and discard it promptly after use. And once you have a SIM Card, all you need is prepaid credit. Again, all this entails is cash over the counter transaction. SMS messages cost in the region of 5 US cents to send. To do the math is to realize that the cost of broadcasting hate behind a wall of anonymity in Kenya is fairly low.
Nonetheless, although there was pressure to ban SMS messaging at the height of the crisis on account of its potential for misuse, in the end, pragmatism prevailed. The truth is, the same medium that was being used to spread hate was also being used to save lives. It was often the only way for internally displaced people fleeing for their lives to communicate their whereabouts to their relatives and to receive news of where danger lurked. Had it not been for timely text messages warning of trouble, it is conceivable that the death toll would have been significantly higher.
Unfortunately, sometimes, at least temporarily, you have to take the wheat with the chaff.
As Mucheke is reported to have said:
“The stakes are high with SMS. The technology is great at spreading hate, but (it) has also become an everyday part of life for Kenyans.”It's my window, but I don't own the view.
