Government helpless as cyber criminals target women

By FREDRICK OBURA

The Government, private sector and non-governmental organisations have been blamed for weak cyber laws and organisational policies in the country leading to abuse of women’ rights in the cyberspace.

A report by the Kenya ICT Action Network, claims use of mobile phones and Internet to stalk, abuse, traffic, intimidate and humiliate women was rampant in Kenya.

The study conducted in universities around the country revealed that 13 per cent of female students in the institutions were victims of cyber attacks or some form of harassment.

Alice Munyua, author of the report, Women and Cyber Crime in Kenya. The document details how crooks have used social media and the Internet to abuse women. Photo: Courtesy

Alice Munyua, a director at the Communications Commissions of Kenya and author of the report says the figure could even be higher.

LACK Of LEGISLATION

"The challenge is that the victims remain silent regardless of the seriousness of the attacks," she says.

"Victims do not feel confident enough to bring the issues into the limelight," she says adding that there is no legislation, policies, or mechanisms provided to address cyber crime incidents.

The report women and cyber crime in Kenya says lack of specific cyber crime legislation makes it more difficult to punish those who use different ICT tools to perpetrate online crimes against women.

"While cyberspace have provided secure tools and spaces where women can enjoy their freedom of expression, information and privacy of communication, the same benefits of anonymity and privacy also extend to those who employ ICT tools for criminal activities and use the Internet to commit violence against women," she says in the report.

According to Munyua, increased use of ICT tools such as SMS, blogs, twitter, Facebook, and email mailing list among other forums, in the country exposed women to more abuses from the perpetrators.

An example was cited of a cyber bully who continues to use google groups to subscribe people to a mailing list called ‘bidii Africa’.

Hostile environment

He would then use the forum to channel and perpetrate hate campaigns against persons that he had grudges with at times degenerating to personal attacks.

"Such bullies create a hostile environment for mailing users and this may affect the way women would then use Internet to exercise their right to communicate," notes the report.

"Social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace for instance are changing the fundamental architecture of the Internet and are providing a single hub where people can integrate all of their information into one location such as photo- sharing, blogs, market place listing among other functionalities."

"This type of networking can be very enjoyable and beneficial, allowing people to reconnect with old friends and share experience as long as they are not used to spread gender based hate messages," she says.

The report warns that such sites do not come without risks.

She, however, warns that some of the social networking sites had become a haven for sexual predators.

"It allows predators to lurk through the wormholes of cyber-space anonymously and peruse profiles of potential victims.Women appear to be more vulnerable to cyber crime incidents and either men or women can orchestrate the attack," added the report.

Most women, who shared their experiences, reported to have been weakened, rendered vulnerable and sometimes made easy targets for subsequent attacks or slander among other abuses.

"Most became scared of fully exercising their right to communicate using the Internet or phones, being forced to change phone numbers and e-mail addresses."

Cyber violence can destroy reputations, break spirits, impoverish by making it difficult for women to access information and communicate and in some cases even end lives, notes the report.

"The onset of faster and more affordable Internet in Kenya has led to an increase in its use, it is necessary to create the necessary regulatory and operational frameworks to deal with cyber crime," pointed out the report.

The report faults the 2009 Kenya Communication Amendment Act, which focused only on the cyber crime against property and not persons.

The Kenya Network Information Center (KENIC) for instance receives cybercrime cases mainly related to the abuse of Domain Name system (DNS).

"Lack of legal framework in the country to address DNS abuse system makes it difficult to deal with the issue," notes the report.

Stern measures

The National Communications Secretariat (NSC) is the policy arm of the Government that engages in research regarding ICTs.

NSC should lobby to actively assist in conducting research on the prevalence of cybercrime in the country and come with deterrent mechanisms.

"NCS should update themselves on global trends on communications," recommends the report.

The report urges authorities to take stern measures against prisoners who perpetrate some of the cyber crimes in collaboration with prison officers.

In 2009, 18 police officers were trained on emerging internet-based criminal trends in the United States.

The unit was expected to become functional in March year after the officers return having completed a basic four-month course.

Before then, police will recruit information communication technology experts from the public to help the squad crack complicated cyber criminal networks.

The team is now attached to the Criminal Investigations Department, the police arm that specialises in penetrating and dismantling criminal networks.

The initial Cyber Crime Unit, which was established at the CID headquarters in early 2000, is no longer operational.

Officers who had been attached to the unit either resigned and were hired by financial institutions or were redeployed to other departments.