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The government plans to introduce a law that will ensure organisers of demonstrations take responsibility for, and payment of, damages to those harmed by activities of the picketers and demonstrators.

The obligation of the organisers will be to ensure the activities remain peaceful, unarmed and generally within the law, including compliance with the duty not to infringe on the rights of others.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki yesterday said the amendment to the Public Order Act, if passed, will also ensure that the organizers are responsible for the clean-up costs.

“The Constitution and Statute Law enjoin security agencies to do everything within the law to protect the lives and property of non-protestors, who also have equal rights to go about their nation-building activities without intimidation or the threat of harm,” Prof Kindiki said.

“Non-demonstrators and third parties enjoy equal rights and freedoms during assemblies, demonstrations, pickets and petitions since their fundamental rights and freedoms are not suspended during such activities,” he added. In an apparent move to ensure that the organizers of such demonstrations are also held responsible, the CS said they will introduce in Parliament the subsidiary legislation to provide for the legal circumscription of assemblies, demonstrations, pickets and petitions.

This would involve notification procedures duties of security agencies to protect the rights of those participating in the assembly, demonstration, picket or petition; demarcation of assembly, demonstration, picket and petition zones; and duty of public agencies and institutions to set aside a zone for persons who wish to present petitions to public authorities.

The new regulations will also stipulate the duty of organisers of assemblies, demonstrations, pickets and petitions to provide the hours, routes and other relevant information to assist law enforcement agencies to escort them and provide them with security; consent requirements from persons whose activities are likely to be affected by assemblers, demonstrators, picketers and petitioners;

CS Kindiki also said the law enforcement agencies will not allow the mass action terming them violent, chaotic and economically disruptive. “Presently, it is not feasible for security organs to allow masses of people to roam streets and neighborhoods of their choice carrying stones and other offensive weapons while chanting political slogans and disrupting the daily activities of others,” Kindiki said.

The CS said the right to assemble, demonstrate, picket and petition as enshrined under Article 37 of the Constitution also created a legal duty on assemblers, demonstrators, picketers and petitioners to carry out their activities peaceably and unarmed.