Gov’t defends cybercrime law, says Kenya was losing investors over ‘misuse of certain platforms’

The government has reaffirmed its commitment to enforcing cybersecurity policies and defended its move to implement the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act despite pushback from the public and sector players, arguing that the implementation will unlock more investment in Kenya’s digital economy sector.

Speaking during the annual Safaricom Cybersecurity Summit on Wednesday, ICT and Digital Economy Principal Secretary Eng. John Tanui noted that the sector was costing the country investment opportunities.

“The benefit in this space is significant. We want to ensure that anyone doing genuine business in that space is trusted. We have seen countries withdraw opportunities from our country because of maybe misuse of certain platforms,” said PS Tanui.

The PS also revealed that the government has invested over Ksh.40 billion in the digitisation of government services and other related technological investments.

As technology becomes more integrated into the day-to-day lives of Kenyans, with an average Kenyan spending at least 4 hours and 13 minutes browsing the internet, so has the risk associated with the changing cybersecurity landscape.

According to data, over 4.6 billion threats were reported within the ecosystem, representing more than 8 percent growth in cyber attacks.

This, experts say, is a call for more investment in cybersecurity even as they call on Kenyans to build stronger awareness among users and organizations, pointing out that simple mistakes such as using weak passwords continue to expose systems to risks.

Nicholas Mulila, Safaricom’s Chief Cybersecurity Officer, says: “We want to keep on innovating, we want to come up with new products, but we never think of security when we are innovating and therefore I continue to call upon all of us here in whatever we do, let us also ensure that we are secure by design in all that we do. Let us innovate as fast as possible, but let us also bear in mind there is someone else looking to deconstruct.”

With Kenya’s digital economy growing at a rate of 2.5 times faster than the overall economy, driven by innovation and expanded connectivity, PS Tanui highlighted the importance of digital literacy and public education as vital components in strengthening national cyber resilience, noting that the government has made significant investments to tap into the growing economic front.

“The government has put close to Ksh.40 billion worth of investment in digital infrastructure, but this is touching several years, approaching ten years, in terms of backbone infrastructure. But looking forward, we put the Digital Master Plan which we established in 2022, a ten-year program which requires Ksh.500 billion for us to realize the dream of Kenya,” said the PS.

And in light of Kenya’s growing reputation as a Silicon Savanna, digital services exports are approaching Ksh.1 billion annually, demonstrating the economic potential of a secure digital ecosystem.

“We have many young enterprises by Kenyans who are developing solutions and have been able to export to two, three, four countries outside Kenya. Those products and those services are digital services. We have seen many Kenyans also who are able to earn opportunities to work for global companies as professionals, as ICT support. Those earnings are also digital services export,” said Eng. Tanui.