Small and medium tech entreprises (SMEs) have a crucial – and increasing – role to play in respecting user rights in Kenya, including privacy and free expression. After all, they run the platforms on which people communicate; they provide the services that get you from A to B; and they store mountains of personal data about you, from your financial information, to where you have been since you last logged on.

Despite this, there’s not very much dialogue between human rights defenders and tech businesses in Kenya.

To address this missed opportunity, Global Partners Digital (GPD) – in collaboration with Facebook – will be running two free workshops in Nairobi, on Thursday 25 May and Friday 26 May,aimed at bringing businesses and civil society together to talk about privacy, security and free expression.

• The first event (Thursday 25 May) is a workshop for human rights defenders, which will explore ways human rights defenders can engage effectively with tech SMEs in Kenya, using a new tool developed by GPD.

• In the second event (Friday 26 May), we’ll introduce the tool to some local SMES, and discuss with them the importance and value of respecting privacy, security and free expression. Afterwards, civil society actors who attend will have the opportunity to network with these SMEs, which include some of the leading lights of the emerging tech scene in Nairobi.