All Kenyans of goodwill must demand shelving of security laws

What you need to know:

  • Indeed, the Security Law in its content runs contrary to the Constitution as far as Press Freedom, Freedom of Assembly and Association, Fair Trial, Freedom of Movement, Lawful Search and Arrest by Police, among others are concerned.
  • The law requires suspects of terrorism, money laundering, drug and human trafficking to be held by police for more than 24 hours. This opens a window for all manner of abuses by security personnel who might now hold people incommunicado and arbitrarily for inordinately long periods of time.
  • In light of the aforesaid and in view of Kenyans’ past experience under repressive laws before the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, I believe this law will take the country back to the dark days of the autocratic Kanu rule. 

On December 18, 2014, the National Assembly unprocedurally and forcefully passed the repressive Security (Amendment) Bill, 2014 without subjecting it to full public scrutiny as required by the Constitution. 

This, despite the fact that it was strongly opposed within and outside the House. Many legislators from the ruling Jubilee coalition admitted in interviews that they were coerced by the Executive to pass the Bill at whatever cost.

This admission was validated when President Uhuru Kenyatta signed it into law the following day.

The new law affects 22 existing statutes including the Evidence Act, the Criminal Procedure Act, the Penal Code and the Civil Procedure Act. 

Indeed, the Security Law in its content runs contrary to the Constitution as far as Press Freedom, Freedom of Assembly and Association, Fair Trial, Freedom of Movement, Lawful Search and Arrest by Police, among others are concerned.

It ranks low in upholding human rights as stipulated under the Bill of Rights in the 2010 Constitution and provides security forces with an open cheque to potentially infringe on every political, civil, media and human rights in the name of fighting terrorism. 

The law has no checks and balances or accountability mechanisms. It presumes that the security forces will always work in the best interest of the people, without ill-will or favour.

This is contrary to what is known about the agencies’ past activities under such legal provisions. 

HOLD PEOPLE INCOMMUNICADO

Besides, the Security (Amendment) Act, 2014 is in stark contravention of International Treaties to which Kenya is a signatory and has obligations to respect.  These include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948) and The International Press Freedom among others.

Some of the repressive provisions of the Security (Amendment) Act, 2014 are that it removes the powers of the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) in the hiring of the Inspector-General of Police (IG) and other senior security officers and vests such powers in the President.

It removes security of tenure for the IG with the presumption that the President is capable of performing a better job in respect of hiring the IG and other senior security officials than the NPSC.

The law requires suspects of terrorism, money laundering, drug and human trafficking to be held by police for more than 24 hours. This opens a window for all manner of abuses by security personnel who might now hold people incommunicado and arbitrarily for inordinately long periods of time.

Managers of hotels and housing industry are required to provide details of all their guests to the police whenever demanded.

The law also restricts public access to information through mobile phones, Internet or publications and allows access only to information vetted and approved by security agencies, regardless of the authenticity, veracity or quality of such information, making nonsense of critical, independent and frank reporting.

POLICE SUPERVISION

The law empowers the Cabinet Secretary to decide when it is appropriate to intercept communication for purposes of detecting, deterring and disrupting terrorism.

Media houses are required to seek consent of terror victims and police before publishing or broadcasting photos or images arising from acts of terrorism.

Media managers must also seek permission from police before broadcasting any information which undermines investigations or security operations relating to terrorism.

The law requires ex-convicts previously imprisoned for terrorism and sexual offences to be under police supervision for five years and sets a ceiling of 150,000 refugees in the country at any given time.

In light of the aforesaid and in view of Kenyans’ past experience under repressive laws before the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution, I believe this law will take the country back to the dark days of the autocratic Kanu rule. 

It will facilitate breaches of human rights, Press Freedom, political and civil rights. 

All Kenyans of goodwill must therefore demand the annulment of this law and total respect for the Constitution and international obligations by the Jubilee Government and upholding of the Bill of Rights and democratic practices as enshrined in the Constitution.

Above all, the international community must now move with speed and impose political and economic sanctions against President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime to compel it to shelve the repressive security laws.

The writer is a management consultant based in Nairobi.