High Court Declares the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Law “Constitutional”

Today, High Court judge, Justice Makau has declared that the contentious Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act as being constitutional. This was announced by the Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) via a tweet.

Justice Makau has read his judgement and declared that the computer misuse and cybercrimes law is constitutonal. The case has been dismissed in its entirety.#cybercrimeslawKE

— BAKE Kenya 🇰🇪 (@BakeKenya) February 20, 2020

This is after the case was adjourned after the judge adjourned the hearing to February 20th which is today.

This case has been in the courts since May of 2018 where the Bloggers Association of Kenya filed a case challenging the constitutionality of 26 sections of the Act.

In response to the ruling, BAKE said that they will be appealing the judgment “shortly.”

As a recap, the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act of 2018 was signed into law in May 2018. It had several provisions to address cybercrime which is a problem in this modern world.

However, the act had various contentious sections which made BAKE file a case against the act challenging the consitutionality of the acts. The 26 contentious sections were:

1. Section 5 – Composition of the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee
2. Section 16- Unauthorised interference
3. Section 17- Unauthorized interception
4. Section 22 – False publications
5. Section 23 – Publication of false information
6. Section 24- Child pornography
7. Section 27 – Cyber harassment
8. Section 28 – Cybersquatting
9. Section 29 – Identity theft and impersonation
10. Section 31 – Interception of electronic messages or money transfers
11. Section 32 – Willful misdirection of electronic messages
12. Section 33 – Cyber terrorism
13. Section 34 – Inducement to deliver electronic message
14. Section 35- Intentionally withholding message delivered erroneously
15. Section 36 – Unlawful destruction of electronic messages
16. Section 37- Wrongful distribution of obscene or intimate images.
17. Section 38- Fraudulent use of electronic data
18. Section 39- Issuance of false e-instructions
19. Section 40- Reporting of cyber threat
20. Section 41- Employee responsibility to relinquish access codes
21. Section 48 – Search and seizure of stored computer data
22. Section 49 – Record of and access to seized data
23. Section 50 – Production order
24. Section 51- Expedited preservation and partial disclosure of traffic data
25. Section 52 – Real-time collection of traffic data
26. Section 53- Interception of content data

It has been in the courts for over one and a half years and it led to the suspension of the contentious sections by the court.