Kenyan court throws out sections of controversial security law

By Edith Honan
Monday, February 23, 2015

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NAIROBI - Kenya's Constitutional Court court on Monday threw out parts of a new anti-terrorism law, including restrictions on the media, but left most of it intact, including a provision allowing police to hold terrorism suspects for a year without charge.

The ruling was a partial setback for President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has faced pressure to boost security after a series of Islamist attacks, including one on a Nairobi shopping mall in 2013 that killed 67 people.

An opposition coalition and rights groups had challenged the law, which was passed in December, saying it was hasty and undermined basic freedoms.

The court threw out a measure that would have allowed media organizations to be punished if they printed material "likely to cause fear or alarm", and also a cap on the number of refugees allowed into Kenya.

But it kept intact provisions that allow suspects to be held without charge for 360 days, rather than 90, and compel landlords to provide information about their tenants.

Mwangi Njoroge, a lawyer with the attorney general's office, said the government was considering an appeal.

"We want to examine in detail the sections declared ... unconstitutional," he said.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga said he planned an appeal to try to have the rest of the bill thrown out.

The law was passed during a chaotic session of parliament in which opposition legislators, citing a threat to civil liberties and free speech, threw books at the speaker, shouted, chanted and sprinkled water over his deputy.

In its ruling, the five-judge constitutional panel described that scene as a "loud consultation" and found that the process had not raised constitutional problems.

Patrick Gathara, a political cartoonist and commentator, said that, at first sight, the ruling appeared to imply "a lot of reliance on government assurances that there wouldn't be abuses".

Nine foreign missions in Kenya, including those of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Australia, issued a statement before the bill passed, saying they supported moves to improve security but that human rights should also be respected.

(Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo; editing by Edmund Blair and Kevin Liffey)

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