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Stakeholders in the real estate sector have raised an alarm over what they termed as increased trends of blackmail by bloggers.
Led by chairman Association of Real Estate Stakeholders Kinyua Wairatu the realtors said the cases have led them to loosing millions which could have been saved.
In particular Wairatu said last year he lost close to Sh 5 million as malicious post was done about him by a cunning blogger.
“Most of my colleagues have been suffering in silence and I have decided to bite the bullet now. We will not loose money anymore. I have declared war that as the chairman I will not allow any blogger to tarnish our name,” he said.
Wairatu urged bloggers to instead look for partnerships and incase of a query they should report to Association of Real Estate Stakeholders for a right of reply.
“Yes, there could be some problems here and there but we have an fully operational office. Before you publish anything ensure you have a fair comment,” he said.
At the same time Wairatu called for the fully enforcement of the Computer and Cyber crime act.
“Branding is very expensive. Some of us have worked for our names to where we are today. We will not allow anyone to destroy our names.
Under the new law, 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 Sh5million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to both.
The new law also contains stiff penalties on child pornography, computer forgery, and espionage among others.
It states that if one unlawfully obtains data or perform a prohibited act inorder to gain access to critical data with the intention to directly or indirectly benefit a foreign state against the Republic of Kenya, commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years or to a fine not exceeding Sh10 million, or to both.
Those found guilty of publishing child pornography are liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twenty-five years, or to both.
“It’s our high time as realtors to claim our freedom back. We are tired of black mailing” Kinyua Wairatu quoted.The fear has been a tormentor.We must have responsible posts .
