Digital activism: Delicate balance in public officials' right to privacy

A protester records a video using his smartphone during the anti-Finance Bill 2024 protest on Nairobi’s Koinange Street on June 20, 2024.

Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group

Since early last week, Kenya's Members of Parliament (MPs) have been inundated by phone calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages from Kenyans pushing for the shoot-down of the unpopular Finance Bill, 2024.

It all started when young Kenyans, agitated by various proposals that would see taxes on various goods and services increase drastically, leaked the MPs' contacts in a new trend of digital activism that has spilt opinions as to where the privacy rights of public officials.

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Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.