As Ghana is gearing up to make the publication of false information or fake news online a crime, Kenya has rather abolished its law that criminalizes fake news.
In 2018, when Kenya passed the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act to address online fraud and digital harassment. That law had a clause that made publishing “false information” online a criminal offence.
By that law, if a user shares inaccurate or misleading information on the internet, it could land them in trouble with the law.
But that part of the law has just been struck out by Kenya’s Court of Appeal has struck down criminal penalties for publishing such information online, ruling that the provisions were too vague and could easily infringe on constitutional protections for freedom of expression.
That law, which has faced grave criticism from various pressure group, had since 2018 been used to arrest bloggers, journalists, and social media users.
In the Court of Appeals ruling delivered in Nairobi on Friday, a three-judge bench invalidated Sections 22 and 23 of the law, saying the provisions were vague and infringed constitutional protections for freedom of expression and media freedom.
The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE), Article 19 Eastern Africa, the Kenya Union of Journalists, and other civil society groups filed the case in the Court of Appeals, which led to the ruling against the provisions of that law.
The three judges of the Court of Appeals, Patrick Kiage, Aggrey Muchelule, and Weldon Korir, said the offences relating to “false publications” and “false information” failed the constitutional test of clarity and risked criminalising ordinary online speech.
The court found the provisions were so broad that they could capture people who share information without knowing it is inaccurate. Criminalising “falsity,” the judges said, could suppress satire, opinion, and journalistic errors.
Kenya passed the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act in 2018 to address online fraud, hacking, and digital harassment. From the start, media groups and digital rights activists challenged the law, arguing that some sections created a tool for policing online speech.
Several bloggers and social media users have been investigated or arrested under the law’s “false information” provisions since it came into force, drawing criticism from press freedom groups.
Ghana
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations has recently presented a number of new proposed legislations to Parliament, including the “Misinformation, Disinformation, Hate Speech and Other Information Bill, 2025”, which seeks to criminalize the publication of false information and fake news among other things.
Ghana government actors, including even the president, have argued that such a law protects victims of false publications online and cyber bullying, and ensures sanity in cyberspace. But Ghana already has a law the criminalizes false publication. So the new law has been widely criticized as an overkill, and an attempt by the political class to stifle free speech online.
The Bill is yet to be reviewed by Parliament. But the Kenyan example could be cited by promoters of free speech to get the law shot down eventually.
