You could pay Sh20m fine or spend 25 years in jail for sharing porn

The sharing of pornographic materials through the internet could soon land you in trouble if proposed amendments to the law are adopted by the National Assembly and assented to by the President in their current form.

The government is struggling to instill values in the people as moral decay becomes a serious concern, even in religious circles.

The proliferation of pornography in places of worship, the debating chambers of Parliament and in homes is largely attributed to advances in digital technologies and a liberated social media. Incidents of people staying late in offices to use free internet to watch pornography are on the rise.

The Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes (Amendment) Bill, 2020, by Garissa Township MP Aden Duale, seeks to end this.

The Bill proposes harsh penalties for those who use of electronic mediums to promote terrorism and extreme religious or cult activities, and publish pornography.

It states that any purveyor of such materials commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding Sh20 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 25 years, or both.

“A person shall not knowingly publish pornography through a computer system or produce pornography for the purpose of its publication through a computer system,” the Bill states.

The proposed law also prohibits downloading, distributing, transmitting, disseminating and circulating pornographic content.

Also targeted in the pornography crackdown are those who “deliver, exhibit, lend for gain, exchange, barter, sell or offer for sale, let on hire or offer to let on hire, offer in any way, or make available in any way from a telecommunications apparatus, pornographic materials”.

Those who possess pornographic materials in a computer system or on a computer data storage medium will also not be spared.

“A person who contravenes this commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding Sh20 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 25 years, or both,” the Bill says.

'Time to end decay'

The Bill further seeks to enhance the powers of the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee into recommending blockage of websites that promote pornography and terrorism tendencies.

“The time to correct the moral decay in society, that continues unhindered, is now. We cannot afford to sit back and call ourselves leaders while our children are destroyed. This cannot happen. It must stop,” Mr Duale said as he urged his colleagues to support the Bill.

The Ugandan government introduced taxation of internet users in a bid to curb such societal evils.

The Bill says pornography includes any data, whether visual or audio, that depicts persons engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Publishing pornographic materials covers distributing, transmitting, disseminating, circulating, delivering, exhibiting, lending for gain, exchanging, offering for barter, selling or offering for sale and letting on hire or offering to let on hire.

It also includes offering the materials in any other way, or making it available in any way, and being in possession, custody or control of it.

Sharing of pornographic material on social media has become a common occurrence in the digital age but no deterrence measures have been employed.

In 2019, an MP in the National Assembly accused her colleagues of defamation by circulating a video she termed fake and which depicted her in a sexual act with an unknown male adult.

In achieving its objectives, the Bill proposes that the National Computer and Cybercrimes Co-ordination Committee receives and acts on reports relating to computer use and cybercrimes.

Terrorism

The committee will also develop a framework to facilitate the availability, integrity and confidentiality of a critical national information infrastructure including telecommunications and information systems.

Those caught publishing or transmitting electronic messages that are likely to cause other persons to join or participate in terrorist activities shall be liable on conviction  to a fine not exceeding Sh5 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, or both.

“A person who accesses or causes to be accessed a computer or computer system or network for purposes of carrying out a terrorist act, commits an offence,” the Bill reads.

For the purpose of this proposed law, a terrorist act shall have the same meaning as assigned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2012.

The national cybercrimes committee shall also have the mandate to coordinate collection and analysis of cyber threats and respond to incidents that threaten the country’s cyberspace, by determining whether such they occur within or outside the country.

The committee will also co-operate with computer incident response teams and other relevant bodies, locally and internationally, in response to threats of computer and cybercrime and incidents.

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