The Bro Ocholla Saga is an Example of Cyber Bullying

Allow me to go on a rant… The Kenyan twittersphere was on fire with the hashtag #BroOcholla. The trending topic emanated from a leaked WhatsApp screenshot. ‘Bro Ocholla’ sent a message to the wrong recipient, in this case to his prayer cell group. The message was a raunchy one i.e. a sext and immediately stood out as the group he mistakenly sent the message to was a Bible study group after all. Someone from the group took a screenshot and shared it perhaps with someone else and it ended up finding its way to Twitter.

A lot of the furor around #BroOcholla was the supposed hypocrisy of Christian brothers who are outwardly pious but are as ‘sinful’ as their ‘pagan’ counterparts. This is nothing new as we all know people like this. Memes were created and tweets both mocking and chastising Ocholla kept it a trending topic for most of the day. I was not online until evening and when I came across the trending topic, I was immediately disgusted. What is funny about sharing someone’s message from a private group onto a public platform without their consent? And it must be mentioned that the person that took that screenshot isn’t exhibiting very Christian behaviour either.

What was truly disturbing was that the person that shared the screenshot did not bother to blur the numbers or names of those in the messaging thread, including Ocholla’s, and people took to calling the number(s). Isn’t this harassment? Even more shocking was the joining of the bandwagon by various brands through their social media accounts in a bid to gain some digital currency. Some of the posts from these brands were distasteful to say the least.

I have had a few arguments with various people, including some friends in advertising who insist that some brands had no business being on the hashtag as it felt forced and should have left it to more relevant brands. I disagree as I feel they are missing the point. My argument isn’t on whether the saga was relevant to a brand or not, but whether brands have ethical standards when it comes to what trending topics they latch onto. It was quite unfortunate in my opinion as the brands basically ganged up with individuals to embarrass and harass a stranger on social media.

Are brands less accountable online? This is not the first time they’ve made a gaffe. A lot of brands latched onto #Mollis before realizing that it was a case of rape. Those running social media accounts for brands honestly need to be more sensitive to what is offensive as after all, they are representing a brand and it can be misconstrued that that is the brand’s stand on an issue. Perhaps it’s because brands online in Kenya is still a new thing as if this had happened say in the US, the brands would definitely be sued.

It’s strange that a lot of people will say that I am overreacting and that I am a wet blanket to what is actually a big joke. The internet after all, is never that serious. Yet if the same thing were done to any of us or to someone we know, we’d be up in arms. The fact that broadcasters have taken an interest in the story and have even gone as far as to ask his wife if the message was for her or someone else, shows how low we’ve sunk as a society. Isn’t that invasion of privacy? Why the hell is that any of our business? That we don’t seem to have much empathy as a society gets more evident by the day.

I think Ocholla could sue if he so wished. Actually, he could probably use Article 31 of the Constitution of Kenya. I would sue whoever took and shared the screenshot and then hold the brands accountable for maligning me. That would be a very interesting case to follow. Going forward, there definitely needs to be more of a pause and think when it comes to jumping onto trending topics not only from brands, but also from all of us.