CCK should crack the whip on internet content

By John Gerezani

I am annoyed that Kenya’s moral compass is down in the gutter as crime and drug abuse rises just because some buccaneers are in agreement that the bottom line is profit, damn the consequences.

It is now only logical that we name and shame them with a rider that it will no longer be business as usual. Let us give it to former President Moi for ensuring that anything that threatened the family unit was never tolerated thus leaving Kenya at an all time moral high.

Article 45(1) of the Constitution states that the family is the natural and fundamental unit of society necessary as the basis of social order and shall enjoy recognition and protection of the State.

It is my take that matters are now out of hand and it is time the concerned ministries ordered the formation of vice-squads to act as the moral police to protect families. I have in mind the synergy between local authorities’ askaris, law enforcement agencies, and the strict enforcement of the law.

Let me break it down: Article 53(1)(d) of the Constitution states that every child has a right to be protected from among other things, abuse of any nature.” Sub-section (2) goes further and states that a child’s best interests are of paramount importance.

Those who crafted these sections knew that children are highly impressionable and needed utmost protection and it therefore begs the question; who is licensing strip-joints in the estates and next to schools knowing too well the adverse negative effects on children?

Under the same Constitution the county governments have been given the duty to control drugs and pornography. The crux of the matter is that we now have “porn on the go” courtesy of the mobile phone service providers, porn in the cyber-cafes and the real deal at the strip joints and real life coupling sessions in our slums.

It is also a fact that many law enforcement agents are regular consumers of this filth either directly or by failure to take action against the perpetrators.

It is also a fact that Kenya has moved from being a mere conduit to a net consumer of drugs with users evenly spread across the social spectrum.

There is also a direct co-relation between the increased drug consumption, strip joints, porn and increased sexual violence against women and children.

Finally, it is a fact that powerful political and law enforcement officers (current and retired) are deep in the trade that’s why eradication has become a problem.

Porn has been described under Section 16(3) of the Sexual Offences Act as anything lascivious, which appeals to the prurient interest and tends to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.

I am alive to the fact that the same Act allows persons over 18 years to do as they wish with porn and that is where I differ with Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) and the mobile service providers.

They very well know that children easily access the internet free yet have neither pulled down pornography sites the way China does nor enhanced their security systems to ensure that only those over 18 years can access them.

The gusto with which they have hounded Kenyans with fake phones must be equally applied to ensure that filth is filtered from our airwaves.

Whereas President Kibaki keeps warning FM stations to clean content, CCK must also accept that some of that content is picked from the net by the presenters, and, therefore it’s symptomatic of a bigger malaise in their surveillance and enforcement arms.

Whatever goes on in the strip-joints is now being recorded and uploaded on the net. Imagine a situation where children casually browsing through porn sites find their parents, aunties and elder sisters in compromising situations. God forbid.

A time has now come for CCK to crack the whip on all mobile phone service providers purveying porn to minors.

The vice squads should also eradicate criminal syndicates controlling the strip joints (and drugs trade) in our estates and schools.

Failure to do that now will see us go the Colombia way where gruesome murder of those who don’t submit to the whims of the mob is now the order of the day. God help Kenya

The writer comments on social issues