The Civic Freedoms Forum (CFF) is increasingly concerned that Safaricom is targeting the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), the Nation Media Group, and individual journalists through legal threats and other punitive actions, in an attempt to silence and dissuade further reporting on its alleged involvement in aiding abuses by the Kenyan state.
On October 29, a Nation investigation found that Safaricom unlawfully shares customers’ location data with law enforcement officers to aid in the identification and tracking of suspects in operations that may have included enforced disappearances, rendition, and extrajudicial killings. The report also detailed how Safaricom may have frustrated the course of justice when Kenyan security forces are accused of enforced disappearance and murder.
Despite the exposé and its grave implications, Safaricom has not directly addressed the allegations, instead choosing to flex its political and financial muscle by bullying and harassing the Nation and its journalists. Safaricom threatened to take legal action against the Nation Media Group, the individual journalists who reported the investigation—Namir Shabibi and Claire Lauterbach—and the reporters who did a follow-up story—Daniel Ogetta, Kepha Muiruri, and Evans Jaola.
Then, on November 12, it was reported that Safaricom suspended all adverts with the Nation Media Group as persecution for its October 29 investigation and subsequent coverage.
Concerned by Safaricom’s attacks on the Nation and freedom of the press, KHRC and MUHURI wrote to the company on November 14, urging it to respond to the detailed allegations. Instead of responding to the allegations of criminality, Safaricom issued a subtle threat to KHRC and MUHURI on November 18, ordering the organizations to stop making public statements or actions on this issue. Safaricom further demanded that KHRC and MUHURI remove its letter to the telco from all its social media pages. KHRC and MUHURI rejected Safaricom’s attempts to intimidate them.
The telecoms company’s retaliatory attacks on Nation Media Group, KHRC and MUHURI constitute brazen attempts to silence public interest journalism, also known as “strategic litigation against public participation” (SLAPP). To date, Safaricom has not responded to critical allegations in the Daily Nation story, including those highlighted in KHRC’s and MUHURI’s letter.
The fact that Safaricom attempts to cast itself as the victim in this matter is as manipulative as it is absurd. It is the Kenyan people who are victims, and urgently deserve answers to the allegations in the Nation’s investigation.
Threats of SLAPP suits, such as the ones being issued by Safaricom, have been a tool by large corporations to silence critics and avoid accountability. CFF will not allow it to succeed on this or any other occasion.
CFF demands that Safaricom respond to the issues that KHRC and MUHURI raised in their letter, and those that Daily Nation carried in its story. Furthermore, Safaricom’s parent company, the Vodafone Group, must end its calculated silence, apologize to the Nation and its journalists, and urgently announce a clear and transparent investigation into the conduct of its subsidiary.
To leave no doubt: CFF stands in solidarity with KHRC, MUHURI, the Nation Media Group and its journalists. CFF will not be deterred from making further public statements regarding Safaricom’s alleged involvement in criminality against the Kenyan people. We also urge the Nation Media Group to maintain its brave stance, support its courageous journalists, and not cave into threats and political and economic bullying.
Signed by
- ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa
- Constitution and Reform Education Consortium - CRECO
- Defenders Coalition
- Independent Medico-Legal Unit - IMLU
- InformAction TV
- Initiative for Inclusive Empowerment - IIE
- Kenya Human Rights Commission - KHRC
- Muslims for Human Rights - MUHURI
- Partnerships 4 Empowerment and Networking in Kenya (PEN KENYA)
- Inuka Kenya Ni Sisi!
- Haki Yetu Organization
- Transparency International - Kenya
