Blow to politicians as authority bans bulk messaging

Political parties have been barred from sending bulk text messages and premium content in ethnic dialect.

This move is an effort by the government to crack down on hate speech propagated through social media and SMS in the build up to the August 8 General Election.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) and the National Cohesion and Integration commission (NCIC) have issued regulations which stipulate that political parties will communicate only through the official and national languages which are English and Kiswahili respectively.

The guidelines will affect communication strategies of most political parties with huge support bases at grass root level.

So stringent are the new regulations that the content providers will be required to provide the mobile network operators with authorization documentation from their respective political parties which in turn will require approval from CA, a process that could take up to five days.

“Prior to sending a Political Message, CSPs shall make a request to an MNO/MVNO at least forty-eight (48) hours before sending the message, MNOs and MVNOs have at least 18 hours to give a decision after receiving the request and the MNO/MVNO has the right to refuse the transmission of a proposed Political Message over its network that it views not to be in compliance with these guidelines,” the regulations read.

The new regulations are intended to stem the ever increasing number of hate speech cases related to political activities in the country.