Community Guidelines

Last updated 2026-08-11

NAKA is a professional association for Kenyans in the diaspora. Treat other members the way you would at a NAKA event where your name badge is on and your colleagues can hear you.

Three things carry the most weight here:

1. We are one community, whatever county or community you come from.
2. Disagree with ideas as sharply as you like. Do not attack people or communities.
3. Do not use this platform to deceive or defraud members.

1. Respect across communities

Kenya's diversity is not a fault line here. Our members come from every county and every community in Kenya, and many are raising children who will know Kenya mainly through an association like this one. What is written here shapes that.

Not allowed:

• Content that attacks, demeans, or stereotypes members of any Kenyan community, ethnic group, or region — including as a joke, a meme, or “just stating facts”.
• Framing any discussion as one community against another, or claiming any community is more or less genuinely Kenyan.
• Coded or euphemistic ethnic language. These terms change over time and are often deniable. Using one and claiming it meant something else is still a breach — moderators judge the meaning the audience would take, not the one the author claims.
• Ethnic mobilising: organising, recruiting, or fundraising along community lines.
• Asking or inferring someone's community in order to sort, judge, or exclude them.

This applies equally to jokes. “It was banter” is not a defence. If it would land badly read aloud at an AGM, it does not belong here.

2. Politics — what is and isn't welcome

Political discussion is welcome, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Kenyan politics affects members' families, property, remittances, and travel directly, and North American policy affects their status and work. Debating it is legitimate and expected.

Welcome

• Criticising politicians, parties, governments, and policy — Kenyan, American, Canadian, or anywhere else. Vigorously.
• Debating legislation, court rulings, budgets, and public appointments.
• Sharing news and analysis, including partisan analysis, clearly framed as your own view.

Not welcome

• Campaigning. Soliciting votes, funds, or volunteers for a candidate or party.
• Any framing of politics as an ethnic contest — this is where political discussion usually goes wrong, and it is treated under section 1.
• Presenting a personal political view as NAKA's position. Positions are adopted only by board vote, and only on issues, never on candidates.
• Recruiting members into political organising off-platform.

During Kenyan election cycles, moderation of sections 1 and 2 tightens, and threads may be closed earlier than usual. This is deliberate.

3. Scams and misrepresentation

• No scams, fraud, or misrepresentation. This includes fake job listings, advance-fee requests, fake investment or land opportunities, and impersonating a business or member.
• Do not solicit money from members privately on the back of something posted here.
• Listings must describe something real that you are genuinely offering.
• Community Notices exist to help families be heard. Using one to solicit for an unrelated cause, or posting one that is not genuine, is among the most serious breaches on this list and will normally mean immediate removal from the platform.
• If you offer professional services in a regulated field — immigration, legal, financial, medical — say plainly what you are licensed to do and where.

4. Privacy and safety

• Do not share another member's personal information — address, phone number, employer, immigration status, or anything from the member directory — outside the platform or without their agreement.
• Do not share anyone's immigration status, or threaten to report someone to immigration authorities. Treat this as a threat of serious harm, because that is what it is.
• No harassment, stalking, sexual harassment, or repeated unwanted contact.
• No threats of violence against anyone, including public figures.
• Do not screenshot or forward private messages or members-only content into public spaces.

About direct messages. Admins cannot read message content, and there is no report action inside a thread — so these guidelines are not enforced inside DMs. If someone sends you something harmful, report it through the contact form and include what was said. The guidelines still apply to the person's conduct: a member who harasses others by message can be restricted or suspended like anyone else.

5. Keeping the place usable

• Post in the right place. The topic picker, and the Jobs/Marketplace split, exist so members can find things.
• Do not post the same thing repeatedly across topics.
• Self-promotion belongs in Jobs, Marketplace, the Business Directory, or a sponsored ad — not scattered through the forums.
• No adult content, and nothing illegal in Kenya, the United States, or Canada.
• Use a real name. This is a professional association and members are accountable for what they post.

How this is enforced

Moderation is by admins, manually. There is no automated filter.

• Minor or first breach — content archived, with a note explaining which section applies.
• Repeat — temporary restriction on posting.
• Serious or persistent — account suspension under the bylaws' conduct provisions.
• Immediate removal, no warning — threats · sharing or threatening to expose immigration status · doxxing · scams and fraud · a fabricated Community Notice.

Archiving is reversible. Content is hidden, not deleted, so a decision can be undone if it was wrong.

Appeals go to support@nakenyans.org and are reviewed by an admin who did not make the original decision, where one is available. Reports are not shared with the person reported.