Tread carefully on social media breaches

There has been a whirl of activities following a string of arrest of bloggers and other individuals on account of content they have posted on various social media platforms. It is no surprise that the sudden spike in the rate of arrests is causing concern in some quarters. This was bound to happen because some of those arrested were journalists who enjoy special protections under the law, or bloggers with huge followings on social media platforms.

However, some of the actions by the police officers making the arrest must be condemned because they are crude, and pose a grim reminder of the dark days of autocratic rule when incarcerations were designed to intimidate. In one such arrest last week, a blogger who had made a pretty harmless remark about a politician was driven to various police stations in the capital before he was ultimately taken by road to face charges in a Mombasa court. Not surprisingly, the court dismissed the case out of hand and all charges were dropped.