14.Review of decisions by the Commission
(1) Subject to subsection (2), an applicant may apply in writing to the
Commission requesting a review of any of the following decisions of a public entity or private body in relation to a request for access to information—
(a) a decision refusing to grant access to the information applied for;
(b) a decision granting access to information in edited form;
(c) a decision purporting to grant access, but not actually granting the access in accordance with an application;
(d) a decision to defer providing the access to information;(e)a decision relating to imposition of a fee or the amount of the fee;
(f) a decision relating to the remission of a prescribed application fee;
(g) a decision to grant access to information only to a specified person; or
(h) a decision refusing to correct, update or annotate a record of personal information in accordance with an application made under section 13.
(2) An application under subsection (1) shall be made within thirty days, or such further period as the Commission may allow, from the day on which the decision is notified to the applicant.
(3) The Commission may, on its own initiative or upon request by any person, review a decision by a public entity refusing to publish information that it is required to publish under this Act.
(4) The procedure for submitting a request for a review by the Commission shall be the same as the procedure for lodging complaints with the Commission stipulated under section 22 of this Act or as prescribed by the Commission.
Plain English Summary
If a government office or company turns down your request for providing details, charges too much money, or gives you the wrong papers, you can ask a special group called the Commission to check if that choice was fair. You must write to them within 30 days of getting the bad news. The Commission can also step in on its own if an office refuses to publish details it is supposed to share with everyone.
15.Notice to interested party
In reviewing a decision in terms of this Act, the Commission may, where necessary, give notice to any third party to whom the information relates unless the necessary steps to locate the third party have been unsuccessful.
Plain English Summary
When checking if an office made the right choice, the Commission can send a warning note to any outside person whom the secrets are actually about. They only skip this step if they try their best but cannot find that person.
16.Protection of person making disclosure
(1) A person shall not be penalized in relation to any employment, profession, voluntary work, contract, membership of an organization, the holding of an office or in any other way, as a result of having made or proposed to make a disclosure of information which the person obtained in confidence in the course of that activity, if the disclosure is of public interest.
(2) For purposes of subsection (1), a disclosure which is made to a law enforcement agency or to an appropriate public entity shall be deemed to be made in the public interest.
(3) A person shall make a disclosure under subsection (1) or (2) where such person has reasonable belief in the veracity of the information.
(4) Any person who provides false information maliciously intended to injure another person commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years, or to both.
(5) Disclosure of information under subsections (1) and (2) includes information on—(a)violations of the law, including human rights violations;(b)mismanagement of funds;(c)conflict of interest;(d)corruption;(e)abuse of public office; and(f)dangers of public health, safety and the environment.
(6) For the purpose of this section, a person is penalized if the person is dismissed, discriminated against, made the subject of reprisal or other form of adverse treatment or is denied any appointment, promotion or advantage that would otherwise have been provided, or any other personnel action provided under the law relating to whistleblowers, and the imposition of any such penalty in contravention of this section shall be actionable as a tort.
(7) Any term of any settlement arising from a claim under this section, insofar as it purports to impose an obligation of confidentiality on any party to the settlement in respect of information which is accurate and which was or was proposed to be disclosed, shall be unenforceable.
(8) In any proceedings for an offence for contravention of any statutory prohibition or restriction on the disclosure of information, it shall be a defence to show that—
(a) in the circumstances, the disclosure was in the public interest; and
(b) where the offence is alleged to have been committed by a public officer or Government contractor and involves the disclosure of information obtained by the person in the person's position as such, the defendant had, before making the disclosure, complied with the provisions of subsection (3).
Plain English Summary
This section protects whistleblowers who share secrets to help the public. It ensures you cannot be fired, punished, or treated badly at work for exposing wrongs like corruption, stolen money, or health dangers, as long as you honestly believe the facts are true. Sharing these secrets with the police or government is always seen as helpful. However, if you tell lies on purpose to hurt someone, you can be fined up to 500,000 shillings or sent to jail for three years. Finally, any agreement to keep these public dangers a secret is not allowed by law.
17.Management of records
(1) In this section, "records" means documents or other sources of information compiled, recorded or stored in written form or in any other manner and includes electronic records.
(2) Every public entity shall keep and maintain—
(a) records that are accurate, authentic, have integrity and useable; and
(b) its records in a manner which facilitates the right of access to information as provided for in this Act.
(3) At a minimum, to qualify to have complied with the duty to keep and maintain records under subsection (2), every public entity shall—
(a) create and preserve such records as are necessary to document adequately its policies, decisions, procedures, transactions and other activities it undertakes pertinent to the implementation of its mandate;
(b) ensure that records in its custody, including those held in electronic form, are maintained in good order and condition; and
(c) not later than three years from the date from which this Act begins to apply to it, computerize its records and information management systems in order to facilitate more efficient access to information.
Plain English Summary
This section says that government offices must look after their files and computer records properly. They must keep true and useful notes about all their plans, choices, and actions. They must also keep these files safe and tidy so people can find them easily. Finally, every government office must move their paperwork onto computers within three years so that looking for information is fast and simple.
18.Offence of alteration, defacement, blocking, erasure, etc.
(1) Where an application to access information has been made to a public entity under section 8 and the applicant would have been entitled, subject to payment of any fee, to provision of any information in accordance with that section, any person to whom this section applies commits an offence if he alters, defaces, blocks, erases, destroys or conceals any record held by the public entity, with the intention of preventing the disclosure by that entity of all, or any part, of the information provision of which the applicant would have been entitled.
(2) Subsection (1) applies to the public entity and to any person who, is employed by, is an officer of, or is subject to the direction of, the public entity.
(3) A person convicted of an offence under subsection (1) shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both.
Plain English Summary
If someone asks a government office for records, it is a crime for any worker there to change, damage, hide, or erase those files to stop the person from seeing them. Any boss or employee who gets caught doing this can be fined up to 500,000 shillings, sent to jail for up to one year, or both.
19.Defamatory matter in information released
Where any information provided by a public entity or private body to an applicant under section 11 was supplied to the public entity or private body by a third person, the publication to the applicant of any defamatory matter contained in the information shall be privileged unless the publication is shown to have been made with malice.
Plain English Summary
If a government office or company shares files with you that contain lies that hurt someone's reputation, the office cannot be blamed or punished for it. This is because a third person gave them those files. The office is safe from trouble as long as they did not share the mean lies on purpose just to be cruel.