Kenya will not shut down the Internet during the election period unless the situation gets out of hand, officials said Thursday.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) chairman, Mr Ben Gituku said that the government would only take action if it deemed it as a necessary step to secure the country.
“We hope we will not get there, unless it gets out of hand. We do not see Internet shutdown happening,” Mr Gituku said during a press conference in Nairobi to issue guidelines on the conduct of electronic media during the elections on Thursday.
Kenyans are increasingly concerned, especially with rising political temperatures ahead of the August polls, that the government would shut down the Internet as witnessed in other regional countries.
In neighbouring Uganda, the government ordered the shutdown of popular social media platforms over “security concerns,” an action political observers said was aimed at stifling media scrutiny of the elections as well as clamping down on freedom of expression.
Similar actions were taken by the governments of Burundi, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A recent report by social enterprise, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, said eastern Africa countries are among the top violators of freedom of expression online with some ordering an Internet shutdown while others like Kenya use punitive laws to intimidate citizens.