Kenya Opposition To Defy Controversial Security Law

The Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy, Kenya's main opposition bloc, has said that it plans to challenge – in court – a controversial security bill signed into a law by President Uhuru Kenyatta earlier Friday.



"We are going to the courts. We also intend to go around the country and seek the involvement of Kenyans in protesting against the new law," the bloc's co-leader, Stephen Kalonzo, told journalists at a press conference held in Nairobi.



"The whole world has seen how Jubilee [the ruling party] runs the government in disrespect to Kenya's status in the international community," Kalonzo said, referring to chaos that rocked the Thursday session of parliament at which the bill was passed.



"It is our duty as the opposition… to ensure that the interest of all Kenyans is addressed. And the president's assent to the security bill goes against the wishes of the majority," the opposition leader said. "It is time to save Kenya. It is now or never."



The Kenyan opposition has already described the bill – which will facilitate government wiretapping and allow terror suspects to be detained for up to a year without charge – as "draconian."



Media personalities and human rights groups have also criticized the amendments, which, among other things, would force them to obtain police authorization before publishing photographs of the victims of terrorism.



On Thursday, Kenyan MPs turned a special parliamentary sitting to vote on the controversial security bill into an opposition-versus-government fistfight.



Kenya's government has insisted that the new law will put an end to the frequent attacks the East African country has experienced since sending its troops to Somalia to fight the Al-Shabaab militant group.



The insurgent group has vowed to launch attacks on Kenyan soil as long as its troops remain in Somalia. The latest attack was in the northeastern Mandera County, where 64 people were killed in two different incidents, both claimed by Al-Shabaab.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Nayrobi