The Legal and regulatory framework governing cyberbullying and harassment in Kenya

Abstract

Cyberbullying and harassment is a developing phenomenon brought about by the development of the internet. Kenya is ranked 4th highest internet connected country in Africa with internet penetration levels of up to 28.6%. The development of the internet has led to positive outcomes such as improved communication but has also seen the rise of cybercrime. Cyberbullying is only a part of cybercrime with its nature being using information and communication technologies such as social media, email, blogs and websites to cause harm to others. In Kenya, this is on the rise and there is need to develop a working framework regulating against it. The freedom of expression theory may be used as an argument against these laws however, it is established that there are limitations to this freedom under the same Constitution that provides for it.The current legislation consists of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the Kenya Information and Communications Act and the Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Bill of 2014. None of these legislations apart from the Constitution which provides a general outline, deals directly with cyberbullying and harassment.The paper uses qualitative research methodology deriving information from pnmary, secondary and tertiary sources most of these being journal articles, reports and statutes. It also draws comparisons from selected jurisdictions to provide an understanding of how various jurisdictions deal with cybercrime and harassment. This paper also finds that the framework regulating against cyberbullying and harassment is not adequate and needs to be improved on. Amendment of the Bill before its assent, institution of a specialised Cybercrimes Department in the Criminal Investigation Department of the Police and the D.P.P's office, Cyber Resource centres and education and awareness are some of the recommendations made by this paper.