How Whatsapp is ruining marriages in Kenya

Celebrated disc jockey, DJ Crème de la Crème, was at the center of attention the world over, after a video of him having sex surfaced online.

The Mirror, a British tabloid wrote, “Dj Creme de la Crème – real name George Njuguna – stars in the clip which has now gone viral this week.”

It is unclear how the clip, which is not dated, was leaked.

The father of two later apologised on Facebook, expressing his deep apologies to his family, fans and friends for the harm caused by the indecent video.

“I am a man fallen from grace and I humbly accept this. In my imperfections, I accept the fault,” Crème stated.

But he is not the first to be in this line of fire.

Actor Rob Lowe, who starred in The Interview and Thanks for Smoking, recorded himself having sex with two women in a hotel room in Atlanta on July 17, 1988.

After finishing, he went to the bathroom, but came back to find the two women had taken off... with the camcorder.

It was the first celebrity sex tape case in Hollywood. The scandal almost destroyed Lowe’s career, but nowadays, sex tapes are intentionally made for extortion purposes, revive a dead career or get instant fame.

While Dj Crème’ video was leaked online, it was later widely shared on WhatsApp, which has become one of the easiest, cheapest and quickest ways to communicate.

Initially, instant messaging was only available on Blackberry phones. Used for audio, video or picture sharing, WhatsApp has become an integral part of communication.

But in excitement or sheer stupidity, people usually send the right messages to the wrong people, leading to a lot of embarrassment.

Last week, ‘Bro Ocholla,’ who belongs to a WhatsApp group called Embakasi Prayer Cell, a Christian group, shocked his group members when he accidentally sent a message to the group which found its way to social media.

“You seem to love my voice. This voice will whisper asking how you are feeling when you will be having an orgasm at cloud nine,” his message read. This was quickly followed by an apology to the group:“Wrong message, sorry.”

Ochola later told The Nairobian that the message was meant for his wife, and that he even apologised to the group.

“Somebody malicious took the screen shot and posted it online,” says Ocholla.

The message allegedly intended for his wife changed Ocholla’s life for a week as he was the trending topic on Twitter.

In September, a woman working for a leading mobile communications company accidentally sent a video pleasuring herself to her work WhatsApp group. The video was intended for the boyfriend.

Any picture, video, or message sent from your phone has a chance of being seen by unintended recipients. The internet never forgets.

Annelyne Kariuki, a mother of two, says that her man even stalks her WhatsApp status updates.

“When I put up some profile picture and update status, he gets angry and thinks they are directed at him. I therefore have to explain and calm him down because everything does not revolve around him,” Annelyne said.

Shanice Kawira, on the other hand, told The Nairobian that her boyfriend monitors her ‘last seen’.

“My last seen hurts him a lot. I think he expects me to chat with him alone.”

While Kawira’s man cannot stand his wife chatting with another woman, Esther Njuguna has to chat with her man whenever she is online

“Seeing me online yet I’m not chatting with him is enough reason for us to fight. To avoid that, I always make sure that I start a conversation,” Esther told The Nairobian.

And it’s not only men who are insecure, women like Amanda Mbichire do not understand who their men are chatting with up to 4am.

“When you see his last seen online at 3:45am, he is definitely not chatting with his boss. It’s a woman!”Amanda said.

Technology has made communication easier. It has also made relationship a whole lot difficult.

There have been several cases recently of messages being sent to the unintended recipients.

Vincent Abwao of Fortune Technologies says it is possible to stop a wrong message unintentionally sent to someone on WhatsApp.

“It’s only possible if the message on your phone, is still showing a clock icon on the bottom left corner. All you need to do is get off the internet. You can then delete the message then switch on your internet connection,” says Abwao.

He also adds that if you send a wrong message on WhatsApp you can block the recipient before the message is delivered.

“Undelivered messages are usually stored on WhatsApp servers for 30 days. You can then unblock the recipient after 30 days,” he says.

Abwao adds that the problem, which is also WhatsApp’s greatest advantage, is that it is fast.

“The service is so fast, that’s why the best way to avoid all the embarrassment is to simply countercheck before hitting the sent button,” warns the information technology expert.

He adds that there are applications that can be downloaded and installed on phones that will help delete messages that are erroneously sent to wrong recipients.

“Most of these applications use a self-destruct mechanism on messages sent. You can send a message to someone, and 60 seconds after viewing, it will self-destruct. The recipient can’t even take a screen shot of it. But that still beats the purpose because I want to assume you didn’t want the recipient to read the message in the first place. The most effective way to deal with wrong messaging is not to send one in the first place,” says Abwao.

He says that another application, String, can delete a message from the recipient’s phone, but only if the recipient also has the same application.