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