• Book urges creators, administrators and users of digital space to be responsible
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Recurrent lockdowns and social (physical) distancing have lowered infection rates of Covid-19 but raised fundamental questions, too. One such question is on the coping strategies we have created or adapted as Kenyans reconsidered their patterns of movement and communication to survive the pandemic.
Intensified adoption of online lifestyles is both a direct pandemic consequence as well as one prominent answer to the question on coping. As a nation, we continue to join other Africans migrating from traditional folk media to 21st Century digital media.
Our society today is both actual and virtual, so to say. The emergence of cyberculture and cybersociety is not just a feature of the West but of our changing African societies, too.
In Kenya, the pandemic has made many domains of our society, from the financial, religious to the educational, adopt computer-mediated communication to survive.
This calls for more social scrutiny of the pros and cons of this virtual reality and communities produced by digital technology. For example, social networking services have been direct beneficiaries in the wake of Covid-19. More Kenyans have been flocking online since corona appeared in Kenya a year ago.
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Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Twitter communities have grown in leaps and bounds. Traditional members of the actual society have joined traditional members of the virtual societies in an ongoing adapt-or-perish trend.
The virtual community in Kenya is no longer a preserve of the youth as older members of society turn to virtual communication. Subsequently, the goals of virtual communities have broadened beyond entertainment and socialisation to encompass much more.
It is said those in our society, whether old or young, rural or urban, who have adapted to the new communication trends quickly stand a high chance of weathering the dire times.
Yet not all about the cyberculture and virtual communities or realities is positive. There are two sides to every coin. For example, cybercrime and cyberbullying are negatives that have spiked in recent times.
Bullying traditionally occurred in the context of actual and eyeball to eyeball encounters. However, as the term itself suggests, cyberbullying is a fast-rising word in Kenya today. It refers to harassment of people by sending harmful information to them or others using online communication.
Social media platforms are the spaces where it occurs frequently, and more often than not, the cyberbully conceals or changes their actual identity. This anonymity of the bully indicates that the acts he/she commits are not only premeditated but purposeful in their harmful intent.
It is a matter of grave concern today that Kenyans across generational and gender divide have become victims of this new vice. The newness of this cyberculture and virtual communication makes it easy for many to fall into this trap unawares.
In fact, there are so many people who do not realise they are the prey of cyber-bullying until things get awry. This is so especially when cyberbullying leads to actual crime.
For example, what starts as a social media haunting turns into actual stalking and then a murder most heinous occurs.
Last year, a murder caught the eye of the nation when a cop who dated a Facebook girlfriend ended up facing the court on her murder charges. The two lovebirds had met online before actual dating. All headed south, leading to a cold-blooded killing.
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Public awareness on cyberbullying in our country remains wanting. Section 27 of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, 2018 of our constitution sums up what amounts to this new vile vice.
The crime attracts a fine not exceeding Sh20 million. Also, it can lead to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years. Both penalties can be meted to cyber-criminals, including cyberbullies, according to the law.
Cyberbullying can lead to psychological and emotional depression of victims even where physical contact lacks. Cases have been reported of common youths who committed suicide as a result of this form of bullying.
Influential politicians and celebrities have borne the brunt of it, too. Ongoing media reports show how a cross-section of our society is assailed daily by cyberbullying. Trauma is a recurrent theme in such popular media accounts.
A new little book on the topic, titled, Cyberbullying: A Crime Against Humanity (2019), exists as an attempt to raise awareness about this vice. It is written by the Kenyan writer and social justice activist Amos Onyango of the PLO Lumumba Foundation.
The book explores the forms of cyberbullying typical in Kenya and their devastating effects. Onyango traces the origins of the vice.
He distinguishes it from traditional or actual bullying ably. In eight eloquent chapters, he lays bare the victims and effects of cyberbullying on Kenyans today.
Moreover, he stresses the need for legal intervention and social media control practices that can help us. Some of the possible solutions he offers illuminate the final chapter of the must-read book.
They include his call for greater accountability and responsibility from the creators, administrators and users of digital communication technologies and online spaces.
The book is available from all major bookstores and from the author at [email protected]