Elachi seeks constitutional amendment to curb Kenyans’ social media misuse

Dagoretti North Member of Parliament Beatrice Elachi says a plan is underway to amend the Constitution to better govern social media use in Kenya.

The MP says social media platforms have become avenues for cyber-bullying, child prostitution, spreading pornography, and promoting gambling, to the detriment of Kenyan youth.

“Social media is good but it was not made for you to send me your manhood and nakedness, yet that is not what Kenyans do to us. It was made for you to advance and build yourself in the correct way,” Elachi told Citizen TV’s Daybreak program on Thursday.

“For us as women parliamentarians, one day we will open our phones and show you the things we see. Social media cannot be the place where you wake up to people doing sex or sexual advertisements. We will sort that out by amending the law.”

According to the lawmaker, Kenyans, especially the youth, have taken to platforms like X and Facebook to bully not just politicians but also their peers, which she calls an abuse of the freedom of expression.

“Your freedom must reach somewhere. It does not mean you step on somebody else’s freedom and say it is right. Freedom has its limits, if it is expression it does not say you’re free to express yourself through someone else,” said Elachi, who has previously termed the country's youth as 'helpless'.

She cited her experience with her son Elvis’s death in March when social media was awash with negative comments due to her earlier condemnation of youth opposed to President William Ruto’s administration.

“I stopped reading what’s on social media a long time ago, but people kept telling me what was going on,” Elachi said, adding that the slain Kasipul Member of Parliament Charles Were’s family has also fallen victim to cyber-bullying.

“It does not matter; he is dead. Why would we discuss his children? It was the saddest thing… we will have to change the law to cushion not just us but many more families who have gone through this wrath,” said Elachi.

At present, Kenya’s Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, Information and Communications Act, as well as Data Protection Act prohibit spreading fake news or misinformation; cyberbullying or online harassment; hate speech and incitement; distribution of explicit or obscene content; unauthorized sharing of private information, and impersonation or identity theft.

Still, these offences persist as enforcing the laws has faced challenges of vagueness with some of the old versions of the provisions.

Some of the social media companies’ terms of use also do not align with local laws, such as in the case of X which allows the sharing of pornographic content so long as it is consensual and ‘not harmful’.

Additionally, the anonymous nature of social media, where thousands of users operate under fake or anonymous accounts while others use VPNs, has made it hard for law enforcement to trace offenders.