Today, the High Court has confirmed the continued suspension of the controversial 26 sections of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act 2018 as reported by BAKE.
Judge Wilfrida Okwany threw out the application filed by the Attorney General which seeked to have the initial suspension of the 26 sections in the act be lifted, pending the hearing and determination of the case. The AG had argued that the suspension from the case filed by BAKE was erroneous as it was heard and determined ex parte.
The 26 sections will thereby remain suspended until 5th November 2018 until the matter will be placed before Judge Chacha Mwita for directions and continuity of the case. Judge Mwita was the one who gave the initial conservatory orders that suspended the several sections of the controversial act. The Law Society of Kenya are also challenging the Cybercrimes Law and she also directed that the case bye placed before Judge Mwita and asked both parties to consider consolidating the cases.
Some of the sections that are in contention which are listed here include information contained in publication of false information, false publication, composition of the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee, search and seizure of stored computer data, willful misdirection of electronic messages and many more.
The petition against the suspension of these sections were hinged on the fact that they contravened on the rights and fundamental freedoms as guided by the Kenyan constitution.
Last month, BAKE also pointed out earlier that some of the sections of the act were replicated on the recently passed Financial Act.
