If you are a Sierra Leonean or you are visiting Sierra leone for tourism or business, find a way to talk to your relevant parliamentarian or any of them, or even someone in authority and help them understand that your civil liberty and right to privacy may be violated if the Crime bill of 2020 is enacted and implemented without strong data protection and privacy laws, basic foundational IT Standards, IT Policies, and IT Guideless to guide how government systems are developed and operationalized in a safe and secure manner. Proper IT Security is not cheap but an important piece of the puzzle in the information age. However, it must be done the right way and all relevant stakeholders must be part of the process

Ask your parliamentarian to "VOTE NO" to the Bill until all concerns being raised by the public are addressed and until the relevant government Ministry, Department or Agency come up with basic foundational IT Standards, IT Policies, and IT Guideless to protect our national information infrastructure and show its citizens how they will prevent cybersecurity attacks from local and foreign actors. A crime Bill is not a cybersecurity solution.

The Constitution of Sierra Leone has provisions for your right to privacy. However, this Bill seems to ignore that in the name of national security and instead suggests arbitrary and/or unlawful interference of your privacy, in any way, shape, or form, including use of electronics for correspondences on Facebook, WhatsApp, and many others. This Bill will give the government (Judges, Ministers, Police Officers, and others) the authority to install devices on the network of mobile companies to employ surveillance techniques toward you and your family without your consent

Take a look for yourself and see how similar laws in Kenya have violated the privacy of its citizens.  More than 50% of the language in the Sierra Leone Cyber Crime bill also appears in similar bills from Kenya.

In the case of Kenya, take a look at two cases (Okoiti v. Communications Authority of Kenya - | Kenya Human Rights Commission v. Communications Authority of Kenya) where the courts ruled that using such cybercrime Bills to violate the privacy of citizens is unconstitutional.

Your privacy and freedom of speech are at risk.

ACT NOW. YOUR PRIVACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, DIGNITY, FREEDOM OF SPEECH is at Stake. Do it for yourself and your family. Politicians come and go. You can be the next victim.

How to act?

• Sign this petition
• Read the bill
• Send a letter to your parliamentary asking him/her to VOTE NO
• Share this petition and raise awareness
• Write your concerns about the bill in the comment section