Category Archives: Technology

Surveillance in a legal vacuum: Kenya considers massive new spying system

Without warning, Kenyans learned last month that Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecoms operator, had contracted with the government to provide a new communications and street-level surveillance system. The new system integrates 2,000 video surveillance cameras, video conferencing, digital radios, and a mapping system into a central command center. Worryingly, this contract likely entails many forms of street-level surveillance including […]
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Africa moves towards a common cyber security legal framework

For several years, African states have been working towards common cyber security norms and regulations through the African Union (AU). Over June 20-27, the AU Heads of State will be meeting where they’re expected to adopt a new Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection. While Access and other partners criticized an earlier draft […]
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Spotlight on African Contributions to Internet Governance Discussions: Part Three: ITU-CWG internet

Olivia Martin contributed to this post.  As shown in the 2013 African Internet Governance Forum (AfIGF) Report, African participation in major Internet governance discussions is extremely lacking. In 2013, only 29 out of 54 African countries sent representatives to the AfIGF. Of these 29 countries physically present, there were 195 participants, including government officials, representatives […]
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What did Africa Get out of NetMundial Internet Governance Discussions?

BACKGROUND NetMundial, the Global Multistakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance concluded recently in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The meeting’s goal was to develop internet governance principles and proposing a roadmap for the further evolution of the Internet governance ecosystem. In total, 1,480 participants from all stakeholder groups were physically present at NetMundial while, there […]
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Spotlight on African Contributions to Internet Governance Discussions Part 1: NetMundial

The internet affects every individual in this world whether directly or indirectly. For example, a medical professional somewhere in Goma, Congo might access the internet to read and post reviews to current medication available and this might have an impact on the kind of medication that he/she recommends to the patient, whether the patient has […]
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5 ICT Solutions From Miss Geek Rwanda 2014

Written By: Ephraim Percy Kenyanito Countries: Rwanda Topic: Arts & Culture, Youth, Citizen Media, Women & Gender, Digital Activism This post also available in: Español · Cinco soluciones de TIC de Miss Geek Ruanda Deutsch ·  5 IKT-Lösungen von Miss Geek Rwanda 2014 MsGeekRW is a competition for Rwandan women encouraging them to showcase their knowledge and […]
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Lets get real about Kenyan Media Laws

In Law School, we are taught to be objective in our analysis of issues and this is my intention in this article. Despite my major life-changing interactions with the Kenyan Media industry throughout my current period in Law School; I am not going to start by saying that Kenyan Media needs to be “guaranteed more […]
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Internet Governance: Why Africa Should Take the Lead

Recently during an afternoon meeting with a friend of mine, Bob Ochieng, who happens to work for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Africa Operations, he lamented that at online Internet Governance discussions fora such as CircleID and 1net.org, there is no serious frequent engagements from African Voices. This got me thinking and […]
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Human rights on the internet: Dot feminist resistance and prevention of Technology-related forms of gender based violence.

We live in a world where we are now almost able to do everything online that we normally do offline. The same rights that apply offline have been argued that they apply online in a similar manner with little to no modifications. On September 2, 2013; I read that “YouTube Removes Feminist ‘Blurred Lines’ Parody […]
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Kenyans Wake Up to ATM Fraud Scare on Christmas

On Christmas day, a number of Kenyan ATM users tweeted that they had received alerts that there had been fraudulent activity on their bank accounts. The alerts detailed “unusual withdrawal activity” for Kenyans who banked with Standard Chartered, Barclays, Kenya Commercial Bank and Stanbic: @maina_bejamin: Not a very Merry Xmas to Stanchart, KCB, Barclays and […]
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