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01Jul

Young Social Media Enthusiasts in Kenya Trained on Internet Law and Digital Security

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By Shitemi Khamadi |
In 2015, Allan Wadi, became the first Kenyan to be convicted of hate speech online. At a May 2017 training on internet and the law, he expressed gratitude for the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge to avoid future arrest and prosecution. While he is currently facing an incitement to violence charge over a comment he made on Facebook in February 2016, he said he is now more aware of the extent of his rights and limitations with respect to the rights of others.
Wadi is however convinced that the various charges brought against him were unfair as many others who have made similar and according to him, graver comments online have gone unpunished. “I feel it was to set me as an example”, he remarked at the end of the training in Kisumu where 43 other youth including technology enthusiasts, communications students and bloggers were trained in the legal frameworks governing use of the internet in Kenya.

See: Allan Wadi Feels Arrests and Charges are Unfair

The objective of the training hosted by the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) in partnership with the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) was to build participants’ understanding of rights and offenses related to the internet within the Kenyan legal context. The training was organized in light of shrinking rights of Kenya’s digital citizens in the face of new restrictive laws and increased arraignment of individuals for expressing online opinions which authorities deem in breach of the law, especially given the upcoming electioneering period.

Bake2

Prior to the Kisumu training, a similar training was held in Nairobi where a Senior Prosecutor in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Duncan Ondimu, was unequivocal that his office would be more vigilant on hate speech cases online, arrest any perpetrator and charge them in court. “We will not spare anyone,” said Ondimu who also serves as the Senior Prosecution Counsel. He added that the DDP had set up a 24 hour toll free line to for citizens to report hate speech offenses from social media posts that the office would follow up with investigations. Kenyans can also report offences to the DPP on Facebook and Twitter.

Furthermore, Ondimu stated that while the country had made gains in removing clauses in various laws that limited freedom of expression, provisions relating to defamation still exist. In 2016, Section 29 of the Kenya Information and Communications Act, Section 194 of the Penal Code and Section 132 of the Penal code were declared unconstitutional.

Nonetheless, a key concern among participants in the two trainings was user safety online. In particular, combating harassment, stalking and cyber bullying especially against women. Digital security trainer Ephraim Muchemi took participants through communications and device protection practices including strong passwords, anti viruses, encryption (email and hard disk) and privacy settings on social media accounts.

Mr. Wadi challenged the bloggers and social media users to become the main source of information even for the mainstream media in documenting events during the election. “You should also act like observers and update electorates of the voting and tallying processes from various tallying centres”, he asserted.

He also urged BAKE and similar actors to continue with capacity building efforts aimed at empowering bloggers and social media activists, as well as supporting them during litigation over offences.

The trainings were organized in the context of the ICT4Democracy in East Africa initiative as part of efforts to promote ICT enabled participation in governance pre and post elections in Kenya.

23Jun

Youth in the Civic and Social Tech Arena in Tanzania

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By Ashnah Kalemera |
Sandra Kitenge, a student of Mbezi High School, is determined to bridge the gender gap in technology in Tanzania. Having benefited from the Apps and Girls programme that empowers girls with computer literacy and coding-for-change skills, she sought avenues through which she could contribute to amplifying grassroots voices as part of electoral processes in Tanzania. The solution: an idea for a mobile app known as Tujibu (Swahili for “answer us”) through which grassroots communities can interact with leaders on their manifestos so they can make informed election decisions.
Alongside her studies, Sandra has since 2015 conceptualised her idea and last May finalised the web interpretation for the app. Currently, she is working on the hosting for the app and hopes to have a prototype by September.
“The app will help leaders know the needs of their people and promote accountability in fulfilment of pledges,” she says.
Tujibu was among four technology tools presented at the first Civic and Social Tech in East Africa showcase  hosted by CIPESA in partnership with Buni Innovation Hub in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on June 16.
Another tool showcased at the event was KodiYangu, a website on tracking the utilisation of tax funds in Tanzania. Currently in prototype stage, the website is expected to enable citizens to give feedback on priority areas for budget allocations and also inform relevant advocacy and awareness raising initiatives. KodiYangu is being incubated by the Hatua Project, an initiative for catalysing citizen engagement and innovation.


Also showcased was Changia, a mobile-based platform under development by the youth-led Tujenge software development company. The app, currently in testing phase, is aimed at community fundraising at local government level for health, water, and infrastructure challenges. Through the platform, duty bearers are able to fundraise for identified community concerns and citizens are also able to hold the leaders to account for funds collected.
Meanwhile, the web-based Platform for Youth and Policy Exchange (PYPE) will be aimed at promoting awareness and engagement among youths on policy issues. Using interactive online media and tools, PYPE will maintain a policy database on various sectors and conduct polls on specific youth policy issues.
“Youths can only effectively engage in governance if they are aware of the policies relevant to them and are able to follow up on implementation,” says Farhan Yusuf, a member of the PYPE developer team. An official from the Tanzania Policy Dialogue pledged to work with PYPE on policy analysis and advocacy following the Yusuf’s presentation at the showcase.
According to various developers, an ongoing challenge for social and civic tech innovation in Tanzania is the limited availability of information. Edwin Paul of KodiYangu says that, for the tax revenue and budget allocations, the latest figures they were working with were for the 2013/2014 financial year. “We don’t have access to the figures for the following years,” he adds. Nonetheless, developers hope that implementation of the recently passed Tanzania Access to Information Act, 2016 may help in making information more widely availability.

See this on the Right to Information in Tanzania: Insights on the Laws, Policies andPractices

Other challenges that Tanzanian developers face include high levels of illiteracy and low incentives for adoption of civic tech tools by duty bearers and citizens. Moreover, given ongoing cyber security challenges, participants at the tools showcase urged developers to make ensure their platforms have strong security provisions to safeguard against hackers, filter spam, and secure users’ information.


A panel comprising of representatives from the United Nations Association of Tanzania, the Forum for Climate Change Tanzania, Open Society Initiative East Africa (OSIEA) Tanzania office, the Tanzania Bora Initiative and Jamii Forums also discussed the impact of civic tech on engagements between citizens and duty bearers, as well as on improved governance in Tanzania. The panellists  noted that application of technology in their respective work had helped bridge the communication gap between citizens, duty bearers and civil society, especially in rural communities. Further, technology had enhanced access to information, citizens’ participation in decision-making processes, and government responsiveness to citizens’ concerns.
However, the panellists noted that awareness of civic duties remained low, supporting infrastructure such as electricity was a challenge, and there was limited research to inform the design and implementation of technology within their interventions. They urged developers to leverage mainstream and online media, as well as physical engagements, to complement their tools.
Finally, there was also a call for more support – funding and mentoring – for young innovators in civic tech and setting up of a “governance hub” to bring together tech and governance stakeholders to innovate and incubate ideas whilst avoiding duplication of efforts.
For her part, Sandra applauds the support she has received from mentors including the team at Apps and Girls, Buni and Niwezeshe Lab. She admits, however, that working on Tujibu whilst still in school is a challenge.
The June 16 tech showcase  was the first in a series of civic and social tech in East Africa engagements organised by CIPESA as part of the ICT4Democracy in East Africa initiative. The next event is scheduled to take place in July 2017 at Outbox hub in Kampala, Uganda.


 
 
 
 

23Jun

Showcasing Civic and Social Tech in East Africa

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By Ashnah Kalemera |
As access to information and communication technologies (ICT) has continued to grow across Africa, so have technology-based initiatives that enable social accountability and the participation of citizens in promoting transparency and accountability in government operations.
In Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, there is a growing number of government portals for public sector information (PSI) provision, responding to complaints about quality of public services or for corruption whistle-blowing, and generally making PSI more readily available, such as open data portals and budget information websites.
In 2013, Uganda’s finance ministry launched the Know Your Budget portal with government budget expenditure and plans for national and local levels. Citizens are able to interrogate the data and provide feedback or ask questions about budgets for different administrative units. In Kenya, the National Treasury has since 2007 published online its budgets and expenditure figures, offering citizens the opportunity to interrogate the numbers and raise queries to the treasury and to oversight bodies such as parliament.
Similarly, Tanzania developed the Wananchi Portal (or Citizens’ Portal) as a channel for receiving complaints from citizens about the quality of public services. A comparable initiative in Uganda is an ICT platform that enables citizens to provide information and tip-offs to the government anti-corruption ombudsman known as the Inspectorate of Government (IG). Using the IG’s SMS Corruption Tracker, a case can be reported to the ombudsman via the website or through texting Corrupt to 6009 toll free.
The various initiatives in the three countries are improving duty bearers’ use of ICT to provide information and get feedback from citizens, and a growing (but still unsatisfactory) number of leaders are becoming active users of ICT, particularly social media. This is aiding the sprouting of citizen-side eParticipation initiatives in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – in social accountability including quality of public services monitoring, in political campaigning, parliamentary monitoring, and generally giving citizens platforms to debate issues of community and national concern, including democratic governance issues.
Uganda’s Parliament Watch and Kenya’s Mzalendo use social media to monitor the performance of parliamentarians. Also in Uganda, civic groups such as Women of Uganda Network and ToroDev use Ushahidi for citizens to report on service delivery failures and thereby compelling duty bearers to take remedial action. Similarly, Transparency International’s Stop Health Worker Absenteeism initiative enables citizens in Northern Uganda to report health service delivery failures via a toll free call centre.
However, despite having a vibrant mobile and web application development sector in East Africa, partly driven by innovation hubs such as Buni, iHub, Outbox and Hive Colab, whose patrons are mostly youths, there is still a gap in the appreciation of innovation related to civic engagement and social accountability. This is a reflection of how distant the local tech industry and many youth in East Africa are from engaging in democratic and governance processes.
Indeed, according to research conducted by iHub in 2015, there was growing interest in web and mobile applications innovation in support of civic participation, service delivery, transparency and accountability across the region. However, the “hype” remained within tech hubs and tech competitions such as hackathons, often excluding other relevant stakeholders such as civil society, the media and government.
As such, CIPESA, under the ICT4Democracy in East Africa initiative, has embarked on a series of events showcasing innovation in social and civic tech geared at increasing knowledge and awareness, and promoting opportunities for collaboration among technologists and actors in the transparency, accountability and human rights arena.
Stay tuned for updates!

12Jun

Round 2 Now Open: CIPESA-ICT4Democracy Media Fellowship Programme

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Fellowship Opportunity | 

About the ICT4Democracy in East Africa network
The network works in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to achieve two top-line objectives: 1) Increased citizen participation in governance and the realisation of human rights through ICT; and 2) Improved transparency and accountability of governments through ICT. Partners in the network are the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), Transparency International Uganda, iHub Research (Kenya), the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), the Commission for Human Rights and Good Governance (CHRAGG, Tanzania) and Toro Development Network (ToroDev). Read more about the network here: www.ict4democracy.org.
Aim of the Fellowship Programme
The CIPESA-ICT4Democracy Fellowship (Media) aims to raise media understanding of, and its effective and consistent reporting of ICT-for-Democracy issues in East Africa. It is expected that the fellowships will result into increased quality and regularity of reporting, as well as a greater diversity of voices, in coverage related to ICT, democracy and human rights.
A total of 12 fellowships shall be issued each year starting May 2017. Applications will be accepted on a quarterly basis as per the below dates:

Fellowship round Application deadline
May – July Closed
August – October July 1st
November – January September 1st
February – April January 1st

Duration: The fellowship shall last for up to three months but can in some circumstances be shorter.
Outputs
Participants in the media fellowship programme will be expected to create various outputs, which may include print articles such as features, broadcast content, multimedia content (animations and infographics) and social media content, as will be agreed in advance of the start of the fellowship.
Eligibility
Applicants should be early career print, broadcast, online or multi-media journalists. Individuals passionate about media platforms such as bloggers and social media enthusiasts with relevant skills are also welcome to apply. Applicants must be based in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania. It is preferred that applicants have experience in coverage of areas that are relevant to the work of ICT4Democracy in East Africa partners, which may include social accountability, gender and youth mainstreaming, technology, human rights and governance.
Compensation
The fellows shall be given a modest allowance to cater for expenses related to producing the outputs of their fellowship engagement.
Application process
To apply, email [email protected] with subject line stating Application for Media Fellowship. Submissions should include:

  1. Your CV
  2. A statement of interest that mentions the outputs you intend to produce from the fellowship, how they will be disseminated, and how these outputs are beneficial to the work of the ICT4Democracy network or its partner organisation(s), a suggestion of which partner organisation you wish to be attached to, the duration for which you wish to have the fellowship, and anticipated expenses. The statement of interest should not exceed 3 pages.
  3. Two samples of your work (written or other)
  4. Two reference letters.
22May

CIPESA Presents Proposals on Access to Information Law to Uganda Parliament’s ICT Committee

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By Juliet Nanfuka |
The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has met members of the ICT Committee of the Parliament of Uganda and presented proposals for more effective implementation of the Access to Information Act of 2005 and for amendments to this law in order to enhance citizens’ access to public sector information.
During the April 7 engagement, it emerged that the access to information law remains largely unknown, misinterpreted and unimplemented, thus fueling the gap in the amount of information held by the state available to citizens. Consequently, civic participation in governance, monitoring of service delivery as well as transparency and accountability in government, is undermined.
In 2005, Uganda enacted the Access to Information (ATI) law which granted citizens the right to access information held by the state. However, in the 12 years that have since elapsed, there are few cases to show utilisation of the law by citizens, and indeed the state.

Article 41 the Uganda constitution, states: “Every citizen has a right of access to information in the possession of the State or any other organ or agency of the State except where the release of the information is likely to prejudice the security or sovereignty of the State or interfere with the right to the privacy of any other person.”

Mary Paula Turyahikayo, chairperson of the ICT Committee, said the committee has worked to ensure that the necessary laws and infrastructure such as the national backbone infrastructure (NBI) project are in place to enable more citizens to access the internet.
Despite these measures, citizens’ access to vital information remains a big challenge, with the access to information law hardly implemented.


The ATI law requires every minister to make an annual report to parliament on the number information requests they received, indicating granted or rejected requests and reasons for rejection. However, no ministry has ever presented such a report. Moreover, at a workshop held last March for government information officers, it emerged that many of them are not aware of this obligation.
Silas Aogon, the Member of Parliament for Kumi Municipality, noted, “We have never seen any report to parliament on how the MDAs [Ministries, Departments and Agencies] are giving information to those who want to access it.  I had never thought about asking for it until now.”

On March 15 and 16, CIPESA hosted 12 Information Officers from 15  MDAs in a dialogue on some of the challenges faced by MDAs to implement ATI and training on the use of the online information portal www.askyourgov.ug.  This was followed by a workshop on April 7 during which a position paper on the Right to Information in Uganda was presented to Members of Parliament on the ICT Committee. The meeting was attended by 17 individuals including seven MPs, six journalists and four members of the Greater North Parliamentary Forum.

Ultimately, for the right to access information to be realised in Uganda, including meaningful implementation of the law, parliament needs to play an active oversight role. Indeed, while some MPs may not be conversant with the ATI law, they recognise the importance of citizens’ access to information for good governance. This was echoed by Abigaba Cuthbert, MP of Kibale County in Kamwenge district, who stated, “With increasing corruption, access to information is critical. We cannot talk about transparency without access to information.”


Accordingly, the CIPESA position paper on the State of Access to Information in Uganda makes several recommendations, the first being that parliament should use its oversight role and compel all public bodies to comply with section 43 of the Act which requires every minister to submit an annual report to parliament on requests for records or access to information made to a public body under his or her ministry. This will ensure that each ministry and the different agencies under it submit annual reports on the status of access to information.
Below are some of the other recommendations:

  • Government ministries, departments and agencies should develop manuals containing descriptions, addresses, nature of work and services, how to access information and persons to consult as stipulated in section 7 (1), (2) and (3) of the Access to Information Act.
  • Government should fast-track and operationalise the Digital Repository Centre for proper storage and accessibility of government records. This will serve to ensure the digitisation of information and more efficient information record keeping, management and release.
  • There also remains a need for the ATI Act to be amended, specifically to:

See the full list of recommendations: State of Access to Information in Uganda

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