Disputed clauses Jubilee MPs passed

Kenya: Among the amendments the Jubilee MPs managed to pass is one restricting the publication of terror victims' images.

According to the clause, a person who publishes, broadcasts or causes to be published or distributed through print, digital or electronic means insulting, threatening or inciting material or images of dead or injured persons which are likely to cause fear and alarm to the general public, commits an offence.

The clause adds that he or she is liable, upon conviction, to a fine not exceeding Sh5 million or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or both.

Jubilee also passed another clause that would allow the immigration director to revoke a registration document such as an identity card.

Although the initial bill had given the director overriding powers to effect the cancellation, a new amendment allowed the affected person to appeal to a court of law over the revocation.

If the President assents to the bill, it will be legal for an National Intelligence Service (NIS) officer to arrest a person suspected of engaging in terror activities. "An officer of the Service may stop and arrest and hand over any person to the nearest police station suspected of engaging in any act or thing or being in possession of anything which poses a threat to national security," reads the clause.

The part on handing over the suspect to police was an additional amendment as the initial bill had given the NIS overriding powers to detain such suspects.

Under the proposed laws, terror suspects would be held in isolation in police cells.

"The commissioner shall confine persons who are imprisoned for committing an offence under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2012 or for committing a serious offence, in a separate prison or in separate parts of the same prison," reads the amendment to the Prisons Act 2012.

It adds that this should be "in such manner as to prevent, as far as practicable, their seeing or conversing or holding any communication with other prisoners other than with a prisoner convicted of an offence under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2012".

Landlords and hotel operators will be required to produce records of their clients upon a police order.

The new laws also make it difficult for refugees to seek asylum in the country.