Kenya on Thursday inaugurated a committee to help enhance cyber security across the country.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NCCCC) will prioritize the misuse of social media which he described as a major threat to national security and integration, vowing there will be a sustained crackdown against culprits especially in the run-up to the general elections due in August 2022.
“As we approach the general elections, our challenge number one is the misuse and abuse of social media,” he said, noting that investing in the cyber security industry which is worth 13 billion shillings (about 116.5 million U.S. dollars) will help put Kenya at par with other countries in the world in terms of cyber security.
Matiang’i said digital communication and transactions were a growing reality of the public and private sectors and urged all arms of the government to invest commensurately in relevant training. He noted that the adoption of technology had also seen steady growth in cybercrime and other digital-driven crimes and challenged the players in law and order sectors including the Judiciary to incorporate digital training within its ranks.
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“Nations around the world are pumping resources into research on cybersecurity. … Our conflicts are going to move to the Judiciary, and the judges must be capacitated enough to help us resolve them,” he said.
Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho, who chairs the NCCCC, said the unveiling of the Secretariat will deter rampant abuse and character assassinations on social media. “The operationalization of this Secretariat and the law will provide us as a country with a very good foundation to get recourse from those who are hiding behind the keyboard of their phones to commit a crime.”
The NCCCC was established under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018 to enable timely prohibition, detection, investigation, prosecution and response to computer misuse and cybercrime. The Act provides a framework to fight computer misuse and cybercrime by facilitating investigation procedures for local and international cooperation.
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