Kenyan president's new security bill leaves MP's at loggerheads

                                                     Activists protested outside parliament as MPs passed the amended bill

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law a controversial security bill which saw MPs trade blows in parliament. It was passed on Thursday during a chaotic parliamentary session, with opposition MPs warning that Kenya was becoming a "police state". The government has said it needs more powers to fight militant Islamists threatening Kenya's security.

 

Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group has stepped up attacks in Kenya. The new anti-terror legislation gives the security and intelligence agencies the right to detain terror suspects for up to one year and requires journalists to obtain police permission before investigating or publishing stories on domestic terrorism and security issues.

It also stipulates that police must approve publication or broadcasting of information relating to investigations on terrorism. "We must all remember that we are still at war and still vulnerable to terror attacks," Mr Kenyatta said in a televised address, defending the law.
He denied that it infringed on civil liberties. The BBC's Dennis Okari in the capital, Nairobi, says the security bill has gone through various amendments.
 
The provision giving the security and intelligence agencies power to intercept phone conversations without a court order was dropped, he says. A court order must be sought to hold terror suspects within 24 hours, after which they can be held for 360 days, up from the previous period of 90 days.