Report: Kenya Police not asking Facebook for help

By STANDARD REPORTER

Government officials investigating criminal activity through social media have made no effort to contact Facebook for information this year.

A report released this week echoes Twitter’s revelation a month ago that Kenya was not among the governments that attempted to get user account information in connection with criminal cases.  

This raises questions about the quality of investigations by the Kenya Police and agencies like the cohesion commission into several high profile cases, including one involving death threats made against Chief Justice Willy Mutunga.

“It brings to question… how they go about obtaining necessary proof to support such cases,” says iHub Research’s Nanjira Sambuli.

Sambuli says she hopes the current ‘digital’ government will work towards informing itself on the social media ecosystem to ensure that action taken in future isn’t reactionary, but proactive.

According to the report released this week, the only African countries that have asked for information about Facebook accounts in the last six months are Cote d’Ivoire (4), Botswana (3), Egypt (8), Uganda (1) and South Africa (14). Twitter’s report, put out on August 1, lists South Sudan as the only African government that asked for help identifying the people behind an online account.

Both firms released their global government requests reports as part of a transparency initiative. Countries that registered high requests about Facebook accounts include the US (between 11,000 -12,000), India (3,245), UK (1,975), Germany (1,886), Italy (1,705) and France (1,547).

 User accounts

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has handled at least two high profile cases in which identifying or verifying the owner of a user account was critical.

One involves Facebook and Twitter posts on February 19 of a letter issuing death threats to judges and ambassadors. The letter was posted on accounts with the handles Makau W Mutua and Prof Makau Mutua hours before it arrived at the CJ’s office. It warned of dire consequences should the High Court decide against Jubilee candidates Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto in a case on whether, as ICC suspects, they were eligible to stand for election. No arrests were made in the case and the ‘Kenya Sovereignty Defence Force’ or ‘Mungiki Veterans Group’ behind the letter has never been unmasked.

Another case investigated by the CID involves defamatory posts allegedly made by blogger Robert Alai on Twitter this year against then head of Public Service Francis Kimemia. The matter is now in court with Alai on trial. Last year, Mr Alai was charged in another criminal prosecution for posts on Twitter that were abusive and claimed Dr Alfred Mutua, then the Government Spokesman, had committed a criminal act.

 No user account information queries to Facebook or Twitter have also been reported from the Communications Commission of Kenya or the National Cohesion and Integration Commission.

Legal experts argue this opens the door to the evidence presented in court in defamation and hate speech cases being thrown out on technicality. Earlier this year, NCIC named Dennis Itumbi, now a member of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s staff, among four people whose social media accounts it was keeping tabs on in the hope of bringing about criminal charges against those who run them. It is unclear how NCIC hopes to do so without verifying who is behind the accounts. A number of prominent posters have in the past been known to be impostors.

NCIC Chair Mzalendo Kibunjia expressed surprise that Kenya was not listed among those that have sought information on Facebook accounts.

“We have… written letters to Facebook, including sometime before the elections this year, seeking information on some accounts. There was even one case that we followed all the way to California, USA,” he says. He also cites an ongoing hunt for an account holder on the site advocating for secession of Kenya’s northern region.

“Maybe we did not get any answers because we are not considered a government security agency,” he says. “Our requests… have not elicited any response.”

 Section 13 of the law establishing the NCIC makes it illegal to use threatening, abusive or insulting words, acts or materials liable to stir up ethnic hatred. Section 62 outlaws speech intended to incite feelings of contempt, hatred, hostility, violence or discrimination against any person, group or community on the basis of ethnicity or race. Offenders can get a three-year prison term, a fine of up to Sh1 million or both.

It is believed that governments make requests to Facebook and other organisations seeking account information when conducting official investigations. Majority of such investigations relate to criminal cases like robbery or kidnapping. Information sought usually relates to basic subscriber information, IP address logs or even actual account content.

Additional reporting by Lillian Aluanga-Delvaux