Mutual Legal Assistance in Combating Cybercrimes in the East African Community

Abstract

This paper is devoted to exposing the challenges facing the East African Community in fighting computer crimes. Several comparisons were made where Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania were used as focal points in examining the effort and mutual assistance in fighting cybercrimes. It was, however, revealed that computer crime has increased, and so have the computer cyber challenges. Looking into the bigger picture of cyber offences around the world, Africa, especially the East Africa Community, is not immune to cyberattacks, and henceforth, there is a dire need for a common understanding of such mischief at the global and regional levels. This thesis depicts the solution to these challenges, including global legislation and the mutual assistance of all states. Although currently there is no global legislation to counter transnational cyber offences, East Africa, on the other hand, has shown a way through its EAC Treaty, which is not even effective in deploring mutual and joint efforts in addressing the problem of cybercrimes in the whole of East Africa. This thesis has given credit to Rwanda as a member of the EAC, which has good and comprehensive legislation dealing with computer crimes and is the only single-country effort in the absence of a majority. Likewise, this thesis has expounded on the existing gap in Chapter 4, which has addressed computer crime in the EAC, and recommendations were made, especially to learn from other countries that have succeeded in fighting computer crimes, including Rwanda. The study deployed qualitative research methods as an alternative to gathering information. The reason was that qualitative research improves a substantial part of the law, which could result in achieving the broader goal of the study.