Before being booked at Capitol Hill police station, Were and Okinyi were driven around Nairobi and its environs for hours. Were and Okinyi were arrested and charged because of a blog post detailing a billion-shilling road tender corruption scandal. As is clearly evident, the threshold for limiting the right to free expression is deliberately high, and neither provision passes constitutional muster, which we will expound uponthe next three parts of the ‘Gagging Free Speech’ series. In the next three parts of this ‘Gagging Free Speech’ series, we will look at the history and purpose of these two laws, and their relation to freedom of expression. We will also examine the government’s proposed expansion of its content regulation powers in the pornography field, and look into Ezekiel Mutua’s violations of free speech during his tenure at the Film Board.

Source: The Star March 27, 2021 10:07 UTC