Judgement of the BAKE Cyber Crimes Case Postponed

The long-awaited judgement on the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes case has been postponed. The case was to be delivered tomorrow 30th January 2020 by Justice Makau. In a statement released by the court, the parties are to appear before the court on 3rd February 2020 for further directions.

Justice Makau could not be available to give the judgement as he will be involved in a bench petition from 20th to 31st January.

We moved to court on 29th May 2018 to stop the implementation of the Cybercrimes Law because in our opinion the law infringed on fundamental freedoms and limited various rights as guaranteed by the constitution. They threatened the freedom of opinion, freedom of expression, freedom of the media, freedom and security of the person, right to privacy, right to property and the right to a fair hearing.

The sections in contention are 5, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 & 53. In May 2018, BAKE was granted an injunction suspending the 26 sections, and this has remained in force to date.

In the case, we sued the Attorney-General(AG), the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Inspector-General of Police (IG) and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). The Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ), Lawyers Society of Kenya (LSK) and Article 19 were enjoined as interested parties.

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