High Court stops the Enforcement of Controversial Computer Misuse and Cyber Crime Law

The High Court sitting in Nairobi has temporarily suspended the enforcement of the controversial Computer Misuse and Cybercrime (Amendment) Act, 2024, assented to by President William Ruto on October 15, 2025.

The Court has directed that the entire law should not be enforced until the petition filled in court is heard and determined.

The Court ruling comes after figospel musician Reuben Kigame and the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) filled a petition in court terming the bills unconstitutional and illegal.

They Argued in court that the law violates multiple constitutional rights, including freedom of expression, privacy, and digital anonymity.

The petitioners contend that the Act’s vague provisions criminalizing false, misleading, or “mischievous” information, mandatory government-verified social media accounts, and obligations on platforms to remove flagged content preemptively effectively grant the state excessive power to police online speech, threaten whistleblowers, journalists, and regime critics, and weaken protections under the Data Protection Act of 2019, while also challenging the legislative process as unconstitutional for bypassing Senate approval under Article 110.

Prior to the Judgement, a section of Kenyans had threatened to take to the street to force the Government to abandon the bill.

More to follow..