The SMS is as convenient because it is a deadly medium ...

When Winnie Wawasi Msengeti allegedly sent an unflattering SMS textual content to Grace Wahito, little did she know there would be consequences.

poor Winnie ended up in a court of law, and is now out on a Sh50,000 bail.

there's also Esther Mwende, who changed into fined Sh30,000 for sending offensive messages to Stephen Ngumbao.but Winnie and Esther are by way of no skill the primary Kenyans to discover themselves on the inaccurate facet of the law for SMS misadventures.

before them were a string of others who discovered themselves on the incorrect side of the law for pressing the 'send' button a tad too eagerly.The expertise may not be the neatest thing to happen to humanity considering the invention of the flush toilet, nevertheless it is now an inseparable part of man.

It partly defines relations between you and your wife, fiancé and fiancée, mom and daughter… identify it.

in the bathroom

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determine this: Many are the guys and girls who will take with them their cell phones to the bathing room.

And it isn't that their conception of enjoyable is shopping the cyber web or calling friends from the consolation of the bathroom seat.

No. It is simply that they'd quite you known as them mad than have the funds for you those three minutes to flick through their cellphones, specifically the messages folder. if you know a person by way of the classification of friends he maintains, you will also understand him by using the forms he communicates with.

The SMS may also be the purveyor of comfortable tidings or dark stuff, although the nature of the content material lies within the intellect of the sender. of their quest to kill, steal, maim, defraud or insult, all manner of social misfits have found a useful tool during this wireless expertise.

From fraudsters and kidnappers to enraged employees, terrorists, disappointed business partners and political thugs, the SMS is imperative. this is why one of the crucial often pronounced crimes in this class in Kenya is using offensive messages.

consultants attribute this to the fact that sending an SMS lends itself to a false sense of privacy and security."It's cheaper than a phone call and the different grownup doesn't have the luxurious of putting up on you," says Chris Harrison, a communique skilled with young and Rubicam manufacturers in Nairobi.

real, the recipient may also don't have any way of placing up on you, but they can block your quantity, after which you may use one more Subscriber id Module (SIM) card. either manner, you might be digging yourself into a hole.

Sending an abusive message with the aid of capability of a licensed telecommunication system is an offence in accordance part 29(a) of the conversation Act of 1998. If convicted, the wrongdoer is at risk of a jail sentence of up to 3 months or a exceptional of as much as Sh50,000, or each.

before and after the 2007 ordinary Elections, ethnically charged SMS texts fuelled the anarchy that resulted in the deaths of over 1,300 Kenyans and the displacement of a whole lot of heaps more.

Early this yr, the ordinary SMS became also blamed for the bloody battle between Christians and Muslims in the volatile Nigerian metropolis of Kano, through which greater than 300 americans have been killed.

Such is the convenience and double-faced efficiency of the SMS that even prisoners make tidy sums from the confines of their darkish dungeons.In February, the media was awash with reviews of fraudsters fleecing the gullible through SMS prompts.

The culprits, recognized as wayward detention center warders and death row inmates, were colluding with outsiders the usage of disposable SIM cards to defraud Kenyans through promising them plum distant places jobs or millions of shillings in prize money from non-existent competitions.

they might additionally sell, on the low cost, airtime bought from unsuspecting participants in these 'competitions and promotions'.but the SMS is not entirely on the disposal of the devilish.

The know-how at the back of it skill that you would be able to obtain hundreds of shillings from a relative in London, pay school costs, settle your electrical energy and water bills and ship aid to a pal caught in Mandera. consider M-Pesa, Zap and different cellular money switch functions.

besides being the easiest and the cheapest solution to have interaction with family unit and chums, financial institution services, health and love tips can now be accessed in the course of the SMS.

in contrast to during the past when family unit disputes that happened all over the night had to wait until after work right here to be sorted, a tactfully worded text message all over the day can ship a wide grin throughout the face of an offended celebration, forestalling a foul eventuality.

"Sending her a contented or reconciliatory message all over the day all the time works wonders," says Kaburu Busunkwi, a father of 1.

despite the fact, in marriages and relationships, the SMS is a double-edged sword since the invention of a raunchy textual content in a companion's phone has become a one-means ticket to crisis.

The indisputable fact that the message provider was among the records capabilities that supplied the majority of the half-12 months pre-tax earnings for Safaricom, the greatest cell provider company within the country, speaks extent of the financial advantage this know-how.

Developed within the early 1980s from radio expertise through American researchers before being upgraded to a world communications equipment, the SMS is the most usual statistics software on the planet, with 2.four billion lively clients — or 74 per cent of all cell phone subscribers.

in response to Wikipedia, a web aid centre, four.1 trillion SMS texts have been despatched in 2008 alone, making it a world trade worth over $eighty one billion (Sh7 trillion) at the time. The greatest market for the SMS is Southeast Asia, with Europe and the U.S. following closely.

With 20 million cellphone subscribers, Kenya hasn't overlooked out on this big business both."i like it since it's affordable, legit and instantaneous," says civil servant Moses Ndwiga.

carrier suppliers have also realised the popularity of the SMS among the many early life, for all their adverts concerning this provider are tailored for the under 25s.

since the text message platform enables a hundred and sixty characters, a brand new language is evolving as words are tweaked with the intention to squeeze in as plenty guidance as possible.

despite the fact the casual SMS language has been, in some circumstances, blamed for bringing down English grades, this has carried out nothing to deter technology Y from 'doin ther thig'.

On the brighter facet, the SMS has saved and spiced up lives.

Rescue operations and the combat towards HIV/AIDS and malaria in Africa have used the SMS to attain their objectives.

In a programme known as "SMS for all times" piloted in Tanzania, a combination of cell phone and digital mapping expertise is used to track and manage drug birth to health amenities in rural areas.

the same provider became launched several months again in Kenya, but it on no account took off in a huge manner like that in Tanzania. although, the SMS is getting used in drought management and monitoring farm animals illnesses.

all over storm Katrina and the Haiti earthquake failures, cell messages have been used to herd individuals into protected zones in addition to collect donations from neatly wishers. SMS texts have also been used during the past to trace and rescue stranded mountaineers, sea voyagers and bush trekkers.

within the simply concluded referendum campaigns, each side of the political divide, civil businesses and the intervening time impartial Electoral commission used cell messages to woo voters, urge peaceful elections and tally the votes.

the public could additionally monitor the results as they streamed in via texting to a unique quantity.in contrast to the cyber web or radio, the cellular texting carrier is complicated to jam, specifically the encrypted version, which is why autocratic states have problems with BlackBerry's quick Messaging service.

The encryption know-how is far above the decoding potential of state snoopers, meaning coup plotters can talk about their plans appropriate under the nose of a suspicious sheikh.

After Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe gagged the entire nation's impartial newspapers and radio stations, the exiled media saved the citizenry updated through textual content messages.

In Kenya, as the country grapples with the consequences of an counseled public that has access to the entire services it needs, and as the police work to hold crime tiers at the minimal, the Communications fee of Kenya has decreed that every one cell phone clients register their SIM playing cards as a deterrent to mobile crime.

"it'll no longer put a stop to crime per se, nonetheless it will help isolate the crook facets and make the perpetration of crime using a cell mobile line much less handy," referred to Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph.

Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Cameroon and Ethiopia are among the African international locations that have taken the measure of registering subscribers' SIM playing cards.