Zambians Have Reason To Worry About Cyber Security Bill – Samboh

Reverend Ruben Samboh says that Zambia needs a law which protects its people against hackers, intellectual property thieves, international crime and cyber bullying but has demonstrated concern over the power which the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Bill 2021 gives to the government. 

The MMD vice-president for politics has already noted that there is a very thin line between protecting citizens and intruding their privacy and their rights. With this line expected to be crossed with the implementation of the bill.  

The issues within the Bill, such as lack of clarity on ‘cyber crimes’ is noted by Samboh. 

“The option we have is to develop another piece of law that lists all the crimes that would be cited under cyber-crimes or indeed that can be excluded from the same. If we follow the application of the public order Act (POA) for instance, then we have reason to worry,” Rev Samboh said.  

As a result, Samboh is concerned about the Police’s interpretation of the Bill. 

Speaking on the Public Order Act (POA), Rev. Samboh said “In the name of the POA, police have killed people, they have brutalised citizens and so on. Against this background, there is little hope of how this (Cyber Security) law will be applied,”. 

“Recently, we have seen police move swiftly to arrest and detain individuals who have no political connections, for circulating sexual images of themselves while at the same time, offering long explanations as to why they will not even look in the direction of politically connected individuals who have done the very same thing.” He said. 

Samboh is concerned that, depending on who is charged with enforcing this new law, it is likely that the law will be exploited for use to abuse the privacy of the Zambian population.