Monitoring people’s emails, tapping phones is a sign of Kagame’s dictatorship
Minister Mussa Fazil Harerimana says that: «All telecommunications will be monitored by security agencies».
Information from the Chamber of Deputies of the Rwandan Parliament, confirm that some of the Deputies have already signed on the draft law that will authorize security agencies to closely monitor people’s emails and listen to all telephone conversations.
This monitoring will be done to all people using telephones or those using emails. The Minister of national Security, Shekh Mussa Fazir Harelimana, said that all those who will be found committing such crime will be brought before the courts of law.
“The Chief of armed forces, the commissioner general of Police or the secretary general of national security services, are allowed to monitor anybody suspected of any cyber space crime and all suspects will face justice not more than 24 hrs after committing such crime.”
This law which has been passed by the lawmakers calling themselves people’s representatives, is broad as it punishes whoever will be found reading news items on the internet deemed to be subversive to Kagame’s government. This means that spy agents will be placed in all public cyber cafés to closely monitor what the users will be doing or reading.
In the history of the Rwandan parliament dominated by President Kagame’s Ruling Rwanda patriotic Front (RPF), not all Deputies are very happy with this law.
Nkusi Yuvenali of the opposition Socialist Democratic Party (PSD) said, ‘‘to monitor people’s telephone conversations is contrary to the national constitution of article 22’’.
“One’s Private life, his/her family or social lifestyle can’t be violated in any way that is against the law, the respect and value of that person before the public must be respect.”
Leave alone Rwanda where its citizens have no freedom of speech, monitoring people’s telecommunications is something that has vehemently been criticized in all countries with strong democratic foundations and in such countries, envision of one’s privacy is a crime punishable by law.
On 10th July 2011, in UK one newspaper called News of the World made its last publication, because it had been stopped resulting from illegal soliciting of news items that included evading people’s privacy.
Its journalists had spent some time tapping and listening to telephone conversations of some high ranking people, who included politicians or those who were close to the Kingdom. It didn’t stop there because its founder Rupert Murdoch and some journalists were arrested and prosecuted