NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 7- Nairobi Governor Anne Kananu has broken her silence over accusations of being a drunkard.
The City Governor, who assumed power after the controversial impeachment of Mike Sonko, has been facing a barrage of negative comments on her social media platforms- over alleged incompetence occasioned by alleged drunkenness.
In a Tweet, the Governor revealed that she owns several businesses, “including nightclubs in Nairobi and other Counties.”
She runs them as a director.
“I have a right to visit my business premises and know how they are being managed,” she asserted.
In the Tweet, she wondered whether that, “make me a drunkard?”
On Sunday, she also Tweeted, “I will not be censored.”
The Governor has indicated that she will be defending her seat.
The position has attracted among other seasoned politicians and city businessmen like Richard Ngatia.
Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja is also seeking to run the biggest city in East Africa as a Governor.
Women leaders are said to be more prone to toxic social media trolling and especially those in male-dominated areas of politics.
Experts say social media platforms will need to be more proactive when it comes to their redressal mechanisms dealing with gendered abuse.
For instance, a survey by Plan International found that 23 percent of women polled cited being trolled and attacked on Instagram; yet, Instagram’s reporting mechanisms do not list gendered abuse as one of the reasons you can report a profile on its platform.
Subsuming abuse against women under the umbrella of “bullying or harassment”, they say, fails to address the fact that it is women who are facing the brunt of abuse on its platform and that the harassment they face is unique to their gender.
Right groups have observed that a dedicated mechanism will go a long way towards making women feel safer online.
Lobby groups say gender-based harassment should be valid reason for conduct warnings, suspension and de-platforming.
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