MPs oppose Bill over NIS access to phone calls, KDF deployment

Members of Parliament have opposed a proposal to give the National Intelligence Service (NIS) unrestricted access to your cellphone messages, calls and emails without a court warrant.

The MPs are also against another proposal to give the President powers to deploy the military locally without approval by the National Assembly, arguing that a rogue President can misuse the powers.

The Departmental Committee on Foreign Relations and Defence has begun deliberations on the Statute Law Miscellaneous (Amendment) Bill 2014, which contains the controversial clauses.

The committee chaired by Tetu MP Ndung'u Gethenji yesterday met Defence Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo and her Principal Secretary Mary Juma and is scheduled to meet NIS chief Michael Gichangi tomorrow.

An MP who attended the meeting at County Hall, told The Standard that most legislators were uncomfortable with the proposals that appear unconstitutional. 

"What will happen for instance if the Governor of Turkana and the National Government have a conflict over oil and the President decided to declare a state of emergency and deploy the military there? We will not accept," the MP said.

The source said members feel there is a sinister motive behind the spy agency's move to bypass the Judiciary in seeking to infringe on the bill of rights. The MPs say the Bill goes against devolution because it tends to consolidate powers within the NIS Director General's office instead of the spy agency's council.

Yesterday, Gethenji declined to comment on Omamo's presentation, saying he will not pronounce himself on the matter until the committee reaches a decision.

"We are still meeting and on Thursday (tomorrow), we are meeting the NIS chief to listen to him before retreating to write our report. Hopefully by next week our report will be ready," he said.

Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs chairman Samuel Chepkonga said some proposals may not see the light of day.

"We are waiting for that Bill so that we can interrogate it. Parliament is a House of representatives and we represent even those soldiers and thus we will have the final say," Chepkonga said.

The amendment Bill proposes the deletion of section 36 (2) of the current Act, on limitation to right to privacy as enshrined in article 31 of the Constitution, that provides for the court's participation.

This section provides that the right to privacy may be limited in respect of a person suspected to have committed an offence to the extent that the privacy of a person's communications may be investigated, monitored or otherwise interfered with.

This can only be done if and when NIS prior to taking any action under this section, obtains a warrant under section 42 of the same Act that requires the spy agency to apply for the document to the High Court in writing stating among others the type of information, material, record, document to be obtained.