The coronavirus (COVID-19) scourge has dominated the news in the past few weeks. People have been following information about its spread around the world on social media and it is a mixture of truths and fallacies.
Well, the Kenyan government wants to tackle the fallacies part where they have issued a stern warning to those people that spread fake news about the COVID-19 virus.
“It is criminal to spread such malicious and alarmist statements through social and digital channels,” Government spokesman, Cyrus Oguna said.
He was responding to some alerts that were alleging that there were confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus at Kenyatta National Hospital and at Mbagathi Hospital.
As of today, the coronavirus fatality toll has hit 3,000 as infections approach 90,000 cases globally.
“These fake and alarmist rumours have been forwarded to the cybercrime unit and DCI for investigation, arrest and prosecution of the authors and this spreading the same,” Mr Oguna added in a statement.
According to the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, which you can read it here “a person who intentionally publishes false, misleading or fictitious data or misinforms with intent that the data shall be considered or acted upon as authentic, with or without any financial gain, commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding five million shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.”
