Cyber Security Bill tabled

The Kenya Cyber Security Bill, which was last month approved by Cabinet, has paved the way for the proposed legislation to be debated in Parliament. A number of ICT practitioners, including lawyer and ICT professional John Freeman, have criticised the Bill and believe it requires more work before it is ready to be passed. ‘There is no intent clause and that can stifle freedom of speech,’ said Freeman. ITWeb reports that he added that an intent clause can differentiate between a malicious cybercrime and a simple mistake. He made reference to the Bill's current definition of unauthorised access which, he says, means that forgetting a password and being denied access to a platform is construed as a cybercrime. However, Evans Kahuthu, a project manager at Kenya ICT Authority, believes the Bill is widely inclusive and incorporates views from industry experts. ‘There were a lot of experts who were involved. The Bill in parliament was a multi-stakeholder Bill not a government sponsored Bill,’ Kahuthu said, adding that all the contentious issues were addressed.