This is its passing of a cynical law whose intention is to intimidate and drive the media out of business, limit Kenyans' access to information and protect the so-called reputations of powerful individuals who have made careers out of breaking the law and stealing from the nation.

There are three aspects of this law which we find objectionable in the extreme. First is its spirit: Its spirit is simply the Stalinist objective of seeking to control the minds of a population by limiting their access to information by selecting that which the people can be told about the State and those who manage it. It is a frightening form of psychological enslavement.

Secondly, are its specific provisions. This new law requires publishers to submit two copies of their publications to the registrar, failure of which there is a whole bundle of draconian sanctions. The question is: Why? Why does the registrar need to see publications before other Kenyans do? Again, this is the whole question of Stalinist prior censorship. It gives the registrar the opportunity to call in the secret police and give them time to seize publications, destroy printing presses and media studios and generally stop information which is judged "unsuitable" from reaching the public.

On a technical level, radio and TV programmes are publications. According to the proposed law, two copies of all content should be presented to the registrar for prior censorship. Does this include live productions? Would it be legal to duplicate films and other copyrighted content for presentation of copies to the censor?

Thirdly, is the issue of the publishing bond that the law has now unjustifiably raised from Sh10,000 to Sh1 million. The purpose of the bond is to, according to the politicians, drive certain publications out of business and, therefore, keep certain economic classes from publishing and out of the media business, in general. It also stops organisations and special interest and cultural groups from publishing, apart, of course, from those who can afford the Sh1 million.

In effect, what the new law says is: No Kenyan shall publish unless he or she belongs to that economic class which would have Sh1 million in the bank.

The Constitution of the Republic of Kenya says: "Except with his own consent, no person shall be hindered in the enjoyment of his freedom of expression, that is to say, the freedom to hold opinions without interference, freedom to receive ideas without interference, freedom to communicate ideas and information without interference (whether communication to the public generally or to any person or class of persons) and freedom from interference with his correspondence".

Limitations are placed on these freedoms, but the Constitution is clear that such limitations must be reasonably justifiable in a democratic society.

Nothing is as alien to a democratic society as the censorship of the Press. We are ashamed that Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, the Minister for Information and a lawyer to boot, would seek to justify this legal assault on common decency by saying that the new law does not target the "mainstream media" but "the gutter Press". Doesn't he know that the so-called gutter press enjoys equal protection under the Constitution? 

Our position strongly remains that the new law is an unwarranted attack on press freedom and democracy. We also believe it contravenes the Bill of Rights and any decent society would find it totally insufferable.

If Attorney-General Wako and his bosses believe that we as the media have endangered the reputations of Kenyans, we do not have to remind him that there are enough remedies in law without the necessity of tinkering with fundamental and constitutionally protected freedoms.

Because this law is an impudent and flagrant violation of the Constitution and of the values of civilised and democratic society, and because it marks the onset of a march back to the dark days of repression and dictatorship, we believe it is our duty, and that of every decent Kenyan who desires to live in freedom, to fight it and resist it.