Kenyans to pay fines of upto Kshs 5 million in proposed Public Critical Infrastructure laws

Kenyans are set to pay fines of up to Kshs 5 million or 10 years in prison if new proposed laws to protect the country’s critical infrastructure are passed in December.

This was announced today during the unveiling of the laws by the taskforce. The Legislation is contained in the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill to be presented to parliament aimed at deterring the destruction, damages or vandalism of key infrastructures.

The Government will also soon set up a special unit to protect Critical infrastructure in the country. The unit is proposed by a bill formulated to look into the protection of Critical Infrastructure, and will be domiciled at the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government. This is aimed at ensuring full coordination as well as enforcement of the regulations in both national and county government.

The unit is tasked with the responsibility of coordinating, approving, designing, planning, deploying, and maintaining crucial infrastructure with powers to issue penalties to defaulters. The draft bill has also proposed creation and maintenance of critical infrastructure register with a database of all infrastructures that stakeholders can refer to.

“Our development and attraction of investors hinges on the protection of our critical infrastructure. That’s how we ensure fuel moves from Mombasa to other parts of the country, detect and act on terrorism threats or communicate. Better coordination will lead to better investment and fair prices transferred to the mwananchi,” said Dr Fred Matiang’i Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of ICT.

According to sources, the Government and private sector players lose an estimated Kshs 2 billion annually arising from various forms of damage and degradation to infrastructure in Kenya.

“This figure does not include indirect losses such as loss of business or losses arising from the denial of citizens of essential services, which would aggravate the situation,” the CS explained. He was speaking at a media briefing where the taskforce tasked with developing the bill handed over the Draft Infrastructure Protection Bill to him. Dr Matiang’i will then present the bill to the Attorney General for refining before being passed over to Cabinet and Parliament for discussion and enactment and will become law after the Presidential assent. It’s expected to be ready for Parliament before Christmas.

Critical Infrastructure Assets are identified as physical and virtual assets or facilities, owned by either private or public entities which are essential to the provision of vital services, and which if destroyed, degraded or rendered unavailable, would impact on the social or economic wellbeing of the nation or affect Kenya’s ability to conduct national defense and security. They cover crucial assets in electricity, roads and infrastructure, Information, Communication and technology, Security and energy sectors.

“We have benchmarked with other countries around the world and we are certain this bill will address the many challenges experienced by stakeholders,” reported Alice Kariuki, the Chairperson of the Taskforce and the Director Regulatory Affairs, Airtel Africa.

Once in force, the Inspector General of police will have special mandate to provide for the supervision, surveillance and prosecution of those who destroy these critical assets.

The highest penalty for those who bridge the law is a fine of not less than Kshs 5 million shillings or an imprisonment for a term of not less than ten years.

“We will be raising awareness among Kenyans on the need to safeguard the assets. There will be personal liability for those who willingly on unwillingly damage critical infrastructure for example knocking down traffic lights,” offered Ms Kariuki.

The critical infrastructure sectors have faced tremendous challenges that have undermined their efforts in delivering services to the people of Kenya. Some have no legal framework guiding their development while others lack the inter-ministerial or inter-agency implementation mechanism that would assist them maximize on each other’s strengths. Still others are competitors and cannot be expected to work in harmony. The challenges that cut across the sectors include:

Missing or weak laws to harmonize design, planning, deployment and management of critical infrastructure thereby making it easy for destruction and incidental damages of critical infrastructure.
Man – made activities such as vandalism, terrorism, Fraud through illegal connections, illegal acquisitions, network piracy and spectrum interferences through jammers; encroachment on water towers and way-leaves especially by contractors/developers
Inadequate penalties for offences in the sectors.
Natural causes derived from climate change such as floods
Lack of skilled workforce to support the protection of critical infrastructure.
Lack of coordination and required attention to critical infrastructure.
The legislation proposes that the unit ensures the smooth implementation of critical infrastructure by developing standards to be followed before any critical infrastructure program is implemented. These standards, will stipulate rules and regulations to be followed by all those planning to put up critical infrastructure.

Members of the public can access the draft document on www.icta.go.ke and send their contributions to critical@ict.go.ke

At the meeting, the taskforce also handed over to Dr Matiang’i the policy document and taskforce report.