Africa Category
Census 2019: Do you know your rights?
Posted on December 17, 2018 1 Comment
Sigi Mwanzia contributed to this post. This article was originally published at page 20 of the Star Newspaper of December 17, 2018 Kenya plans to roll out a national census at midnight August 24, 2019, at a cost of Sh18.5 billion. The census seeks to collect various data, including marital status, ethnicity, disability, number of […]
Banks should protect the data of customers and their next of kin
Posted on December 11, 2018 Leave a Comment
Hibo Hussein contributed to this post. This article was originally published at page 11 of Business Daily Africa Newspaper of December 11, 2018 This week, banks have approached the High Court to declare unconstitutional some clauses in the Finance Act 2018 that requires them to record details of customers’ next of kin and to keep […]
Seven steps to reform the CA
Posted on October 1, 2018 Leave a Comment
This article was originally published at page 21 of the Star Newspaper of October 1, 2018 The past month has been eventful for the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), with the election of John Omo as the secretary general of the African Telecommunications Union. He will represent the CA and the government at the union. […]
Data Breaches Imperil Privacy
Posted on September 22, 2018 Leave a Comment
This article was originally published at page 21 of the Star Newspaper of September 20, 2018 We have recently witnessed data breaches that have led to the publication of private facts about many Kenyans. These private facts have been obtained from telephone conversation records , intrusion into individual digital photo libraries, and breach of public […]
Access Now brief: how African countries can shape cybercrime laws that protect rights
Posted on December 21, 2016 Leave a Comment
Today Access Now releases a policy brief analyzing draft cybercrime laws in four African Union countries to help legislators meet human rights obligations as they craft laws under the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data. We urge all AU countries to ratify the convention, and to implement it in a way that […]
Telcos warned against shutting down DR Congo networks
Posted on December 16, 2016 Leave a Comment
Peter Micek contributed to this post. Update 12/20/2016: Vodafone Group and Orange have confirmed the order from the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which specifically targets social networks that use Voice over internet protocol (VoIP), images, and video. Access Now has offered circumvention advice for users in the Congo in this post here […]
Access Now at the 2016 Internet Governance Forum
Posted on December 1, 2016 Leave a Comment
Peter Micek contributed to this post. The United Nations is holding the 11th annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on December 6-9, 2016 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Access Now staff will be there to lead or participate in pre-events, workshops, and high-level meetings. We are also delivering the #KeepItOn petition that asks government leaders at IGF to […]
Testimony about the Cyber Security and Protection Bill before before the Kenyan Senate ICT- Committee
Posted on October 19, 2016 Leave a Comment
On 05th July 2016, the Kenyan Senate ICT Committee published the Cyber Security and Protection Bill. This was followed by a public hearing on the same draft bill on 19th October, 2016. Here is a call for public input into the process: Please see below my prepared statement that I presented on key clauses: Ephraim […]
What steps can Africans take and lead in Internet governance and social justice?
Posted on October 17, 2016 Leave a Comment
Almost three years ago, I published a blogpost on CircleID titled “Internet Governance: Why Africa Should Take the Lead.” I argued that African Internet stakeholders use a ‘wait and see approach’ in matters as critical as Internet governance,” and that African voices are missing in key Internet governance discussion fora. Additionally, I suggested that some […]
What’s happening in Ethiopia and how can we protect human rights?
Posted on October 17, 2016 Leave a Comment
Protests, internet shutdowns, deaths — and a new law that threatens digital rights when the people of Ethiopia need them most Ethiopia has issued a six-month state of emergency in the country following months of citizen protests. The state of emergency comes in an environment of increasing repression. Government forces have killed more than 500 […]
Internet shutdown in Zimbabwe: what happened?
Posted on July 7, 2016 Leave a Comment
Only five days after the United Nations passed an historic resolution specifically condemning internet shutdowns, reports from Zimbabwe suggest that the government may have ordered WhatsApp blocked. Zimbabweans and local news outlets reported an internet shutdown in the context of massive social unrest. Thousands of people are protesting about bad governance and a collapsing economy […]
Kenya: draft laws for the internet need redrafting
Posted on June 13, 2016 Leave a Comment
Access Now files comments on the regulations with Kenya’s Communications Authority Last week, Dennis Itumbi, the Kenyan Presidency State House Director for Digital and Diaspora Media, hinted that the Kenyan government was preparing a bill to regulate the use of the social media, with the aim of preventing hate speech. The announcement came as a […]
Ephraim Percy Kenyanito 