The day Queentah Wambulwa woke up to what seemed like a million alerts on her phone is a day she will never forget. Her pictures and videos in their undressed state had been posted on their village’s Facebook page.
She had secretly shared these images with her ex-boyfriend. When Wambulwa first saw her ex-lover, who was nine years her senior, she was seventeen.
“The friendship persisted after I graduated from high school and into my time at the university in 2015.” Despite my parents’ reservations, I was in love and trusted my lover in our first relationship, she remarked.
She decided to travel to Nairobi one day to surprise her boyfriend at his home. Sadly, their romance came to an end when she discovered him having an affair.
“I would drink excessively to numb the pain as I would sink into a deep depression.” I entered another relationship that didn’t last, which made me worsen till I needed to see a psychiatrist. I decided to become an advocate for mental health and wellness at the university after I was able to heal and recover with the assistance of counselors,” the woman stated.
Wambulwa soon began giving public talks about her heartbreak and how it caused her to suffer from extreme despair, alcoholism, and drug use. That’s when her ex-boyfriend betrayed her confidence by sharing the graphic material with others without her permission.
It didn’t take long for her parents to see the pictures and videos as the Facebook group members included neighbors, acquaintances, and family from her hometown in Bungoma County.
Wambulwa gasped in shock. I was taken aback. Both perplexed and horrified that it exists,” she remarks. As the pictures circulated on Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and regional blogs, I was overcome with remorse, worry, and dread. I thought of killing myself to put an end to the suffering as I had nowhere to turn for support. Upon receiving my call, my mother realized I wasn’t feeling well and made the decision to come to Mombasa to support me,” the woman recalled.
But things would get worse. Following this occurrence, she was subjected to abuse and cyberbullying. Men would approach her on the street and tell her how much they liked the images and videos of her nude body. She remembers getting calls from someone posing as police officials threatening to put her under custody for voluntarily disclosing obscene photos of herself.
Even though she reported the incident to the police, the officer chastised her and told her that her actions were more inappropriate than the crime. A complaint should be filed with the Department of Criminal Investigation, she was told.
She finds it annoying that some people still have private images and videos of her stored on their computers or phones, even though they were able to get the images removed from Facebook, Telegram, and a few blogs.
What legal guidelines apply to revenge porn?
The posting of another person’s intimate, sexually suggestive images or videos—either with their permission or against it—with the intention of embarrassing or upsetting them is known as revenge porn. Occasionally, links to the subjects’ social media profiles and personal details like their complete name and address are included with the photos.
Anthony Odeck, a lawyer, is adamant that Kenyans are unaware that acts committed against them are illegal, even though Kenya’s current judicial system is inadequate in addressing these crimes.
Any individual who transfers, publishes, or disseminates an intimate or obscene image of another person, including by making a digital depiction available for distribution or downloading through a telecommunications network or through any other method of transferring data to a computer, is guilty of an offense under section 37 of the Act and faces up to two years in prison, a fine of two hundred thousand shillings, or both.
The offense encompasses exchanging photos electronically or through more conventional means, such as uploading images to the internet, sending texts and emails, or displaying an electronic or physical image to someone. It can occur both online and offline.
“We cannot hold them entirely responsible since, except from article 31 of the 2010 Constitution, which safeguarded the right to privacy against interference with property, domestic matters, family, and other matters, no specific legislation applied to the offense. President Kenyatta only recently signed the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act of 2018,” he clarified.
The new trend of Cyber Violence against Women and Girls might significantly increase, according to UNESCO’s (2015) research report on fighting online violence against women and girls. Seventy-three percent of the women who took part in the study said they had either witnessed or experienced some kind of online violence.
If the internet is to continue being a secure environment for empowering people and fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal 5, which calls for achieving gender equality for all women and girls by 2030, then this issue must be resolved.
“The victim should report the incident as soon as possible while the matter is still in the public domain because it also amounts to defamation under the offense of libel,” he said if they discover that private photos of them have been disseminated without their consent.
Currently serving as the creator of the Girls for Girls Africa Mental Health Foundation, Queentah Wambulwa offers survivors, caregivers, teenagers, and students trauma-informed psychosocial support.
Her advocacy work as a survivor and activist has led her to focus on trying to change the law to make it safer for women and girls to use the internet.
