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"content": "an arbitrary, capricious, malevolent or undemocratic manner. There must be some democratic justification why you are limiting that right. Thirdly, under Article 24 of the Constitution, rights can only be limited, taking into consideration a number of factors such as the nature of that right, purpose of the limitation and the rights of other people. Let me give two examples to simplify what I mean. You can limit human rights. My friends from the party where Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. and Sen. (Dr.) Zani come from tell us that Kenyans have a right to demonstrate, assemble and get information but they do not tell us those rights are limited under Article 24. The law limiting the rights is not undemocratic, it is reasonable in a democratic society. Thirdly, so long as that limitation is for the protection of the rights of other people. When I used to teach international law in the topic of human rights, we used to say, “Your rights end where my nose starts.” Even if we assume you have rights to do whatever you want, you cannot go exercising that right once you reach where my nose starts. That is where your rights end. You cannot trample on the rights of others as we have seen the destruction of property in this country by people ostensibly purporting to demonstrate over certain political rights. There are limitations. In the context of access to information, the limitation of this right is based on areas of national security. It says, and I think these are very noble and justifiable limitations that, “Issues to do with national security, impeding due process of law, endangering safety, health or life of any person may limit the access to information.” For example, you cannot demand information about my private health from Kenyatta National Hospital which is a public agency. You cannot demand my medical record, because that is against the right to privacy that I enjoy, which is also protected in another part of the Constitution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the other thing that might limit rights are commercial interests or intellectual property rights of a third party, for example, if giving that information is going to jeopardize intellectual property rights of a third party, like a patent, copyright and other intellectual property, there will be a limitation there, and also in professional confidentiality which mainly applies in the practice of medicine and law. For example, you cannot demand information about my client from me as a lawyer. That is confidential information. There is a law that creates that confidentiality, the Advocates Act. The same applies to a medical doctor. The professional oath that they take and even the statutes that regulate the practice of medicine gives them that immunity to protect certain information even if that information is held by a public agency. Those are the limitations With regard to military and security concerns, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, information that relates to national security that may not be available in exercise of this right includes: military strategy, covert operations of the military, military capability and capacity or military deployment. The other day, again, I heard our good friends trying to politicize a very savage attack that had taken place outside the borders of Kenya against the soldiers of this country. They were trying to apply political pressure on the Commander-In-Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, to tell Kenyans how many soldiers had died, how they had died and possibly to give them the video proof of how our The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}