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How to Stay Online In case Internet is Shutdown in Kenya

Internet shutdown is a common phenomenon in most countries with unstable political democracies. Reports indicate that India holds the inglorious title as the most notorious country in the world to impose internet disruption.

Kenya has never witnessed total internet shutdown before, but in 2018 there was partial mainstream media shutdown as a result of the live coverage aired by a section of TV stations showing ODM leader Raila Odinga being sworn in as the ‘People’s President.’

Internet shutdown has adverse economic effects as most companies rely on the network for various marketing operations and transactions. According to the App developed by netblocks, Kenya could suffer a loss of $6,737,457 in a single day if the government imposed total internet shutdown.

If Facebook was to be blocked for a single day, Kenya would suffer an economic loss of $1,684,364. Social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp are mostly used by Kenyans to market their products.

There are many ways that one can prepare himself or herself in case of internet disruptions. These among others include:

Using circumvention tools or proxies such as Psiphon, Tor, Orbot and Lantern among others.

Ensure that Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are secure so as to enable the user to gain safe access to a remote computer over the internet.

Internet users are always advised to protect themselves by ensuring that the sites they are using is delivered over HTTPs. The HTTPs protocol enables one to gain access to the original website and not the altered one. Tor project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation can help in the installation of HTTPs everywhere.

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