On the 12th of July 2017 at Serena, JamiiForums in collaboration with The Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) hosted a stakeholder’s event with the theme ‘Engagement on Intermediary Liability and Data Protection’.
The conference was assessing the roles of the intermediaries and how they could effectively protect the customer’s valuable data (intermediaries such as Mobile Companies, JamiiForums, ISP etc). This session was hosted by Pacal Mayalla of a panel consisting of Erick Kabendera, Irene Kiwia, Carol Ndosi and Jebra Kambole.
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From Left, Erick Kabendera, Irene Kiwia, Paschal Mayalla, Adv. Jebra Kambole and Carol Ndosi
Today, the
5th of August, 2019 marks exactly two years since when Erick Kabendera asked the question if he will be safe or may end up in prison. Today he has been charged with three offences as shown below;
- LEADING ORGANISED CRIME; Contrary to Paragraph 4(1)(c) of the First Schedule to, and Sections 57(1) and 60(2) of the Economic and Organized Crime Control Act, [Cap. 200 R.E 2002).
- FAILURE TO PAY TAX; Contrary to Sections 105(a) of the Income Tax Act, [Cap. 332 R.E 2008)
- MONEY LAUNDERING; Contrary to Sections 3(u), 12(d) and 13(1)(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, No. 12 of 2006, read together with Paragraph 22 of the First Schedule to, and Sections 57(1) and 60(2) of the Economic and Organized Crimes Control Act, [CAP. 200 R.E 2002] as amended.
Eric Kabendera on the topic;
To kick off with this discussion, I think we all understand that penetrating internet is critical to Freedom of Expression and digital innovation. But I think in the context of Tanzania the question that I have been asking myself is “How do we as a country maintain uncensored internet and I how do we justify the impact that regulated internet could have on development?” That has been the huge dilemma for me.
Another question that I have been asking myself is under this administration… not under this administration to be fair, from the last administration especially the last term of President Kikwete when we saw several legislation been taken to parliament and its implication to Freedom of Expression especially online. So what implication does that have in terms of our interactions as journalist, as normal citizen online and whether it is going to close innovation space for internet.
I think my thoughts basically are divided into three perspectives. One, the growing trend that we saw in the final five years of president Kikwete and it has become very strong since the current president came into power. It’s a dilemma. People asking if you don’t feel threatened, if you are not scared to post on your twitter handle or Facebook. And we have gotten to a situation where everybody basically feels they are been listened to, that you re followed everywhere. I have talked to people who basically don’t own any public office. Somebody afraid to tell you something on the phone because they are afraid that they are listened to. So that on my opinion has taken the country back to the 70s or 80s where you couldn’t make the a political statement publicly because everybody felt that the administration of President Nyerere was listening to everybody.
Another perspective is we have seen the tremendous growth of number of people who are online, who are using internet but what we don’t know is whether the growth, the demand has prompted the increase in internet innovation. I think that is another issue that is still debated because according to my assessment, majority of the people who are using internet don’t use it for career growth, they don’t use internet for something that is constructive to advocate for certain cause that will help the people or hold government into account. The culture is growing but comparatively if you look at the number of who are trying to use the internet to do things that are tangible and significant aiming at helping the country, it is quite low.
I think in terms of innovation, it is growing but the pace is slow because if you don’t have demand, the right market, the need then why would people be innovating? Who would you innovate for? If there is no self-awareness that we need the terminology to be able to address our day to day problems in health, in education? So there are gaps in there and I think for us to be able to address these gaps we need to put more emphasis to educate the public that internet is not there for people to abuse each other, people just to post nudity, it just there for people to be able to move to the next level.
On the other hand we have seen the government aggressively, the stories you hear on the government corridors sometimes are shocking and I think the end users don’t know exactly what the government is doing behind closed doors to find out what people are talking about, to find out what people are doing online and I think the last case study we have had in the last few month of people being arrested because of what they have been commenting in WhatsApp groups, people been arrest because they express what they are feeling towards a certain government policy online. Holding people backwards from expressing themselves and saying exactly what government need to do for them.
On the other hand I feel probably the government rather than threatening people that they are going to be arrested they could work with private sectors, equivalent to JamiiForums, to say we need to use this as the platform to get information from the public, to get public feedback. It’s different from the 70s where you have to walk village to village to get to understand what people think about a certain program the government is rolling out. Technology is helping the government to get prompt feedback, and I think they need to capitalize on that, rather than instituting laws, arresting people and holding everybody back.
The bottom line for me, my initial thought is we are at dilemma where we don’t know which route to take as a nation when it comes to Freedom of Expression, innovation and internet use. On one hand you have the majority of people how don’t know what they should do with this internet penetration. On the other hand you have government not basically teaming-up with private sector, other people to try to see how they could use internet to try to create a one way traffic with the citizens… And on another hand you have the citizen worrying that if I make that comment, if I ask a minister this question will I be safe or I may end in the prison tomorrow ?
I personally would end on the note that, we have a lot of Brilliant Minds in Tanzania, but we have a very few BRAVE brilliant minds in Tanzania. Living next to someone very brave and fortunate enough to see how excruciating the whole process is; I have learned through experience that there is a big difference between knowing that we need to be brave and the actual entity of being brave. This is a huge blow on the space, I pray for Eric more so for his family who will suffer to be brave, patient and never to lose faith.
#FreeErickKabendera #ErickKabendera #FreedomOf Expression
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