Court to rule today on contentious security law

Kenya: The fate of the anti-terrorism law will be known today after the High Court rules on a petition filed by the Opposition, CORD, opposing the manner in which the Security Laws (amendment) Bill 2014 was passed.

A five-judge bench of Isaac Lenaola, Mumbi Ngugi, Louis Onguto, Hilary Chemitei, and Hedwig Ong'udi is expected to rule on whether the bill was passed and signed into law in a proper manner, and if it is in tandem with the Constitution.

Already, the High Court had suspended eight contentious clauses of the law, a move seen as a blow to the Jubilee coalition, as the bill was controversially passed in the House last December.

If the law is nullified, the Opposition will have triumphed over the Jubilee legislators 'tyranny of numbers' that supported the bill amid chaos in the National Assembly.

In its petition, CORD argued that the law infringes on individual rights.