Under the guise of giving the government the tools to fight
insecurity, the amended laws gives government wide and unchecked discretion in
defining what constitutes a threat and taking measures to mitigate against it.
It cuts a large swathe through constitutionally guaranteed rights to privacy,
fair trial, assembly, information, expression and thought as well as freedoms
from arbitrary detention and even torture, in a misguided attempt to respond to
rising incidents of insecurity including terrorist attacks. This atrocious
piece of legislation is just the culmination of a long period of Kenyan elites
undermining the foundations of liberal democracy in Kenya.
