The High Court in Mombasa has ordered the government to provide two activists with agreements relating to the construction of the Sh450 billion standard gauge railway (SGR) line project.

Justice John Mativo further issued an order declaring that failure by the Attorney-General, Transport and National Treasury Principal Secretaries to provide the information sought is a violation of the right to access to information.

Activists Khelef Khalifa and Ms Wanjiru Gikonyo sought to have all contracts, agreements and studies related to the construction and operations of the SGR made public. They argued that keeping the documents confidential violates the law and discourages transparency in governance.

Justice Mativo ruled that public officers have a constitutional duty to make information available to Kenyans saying that any restriction on access to information from the government must have a genuine purpose and demonstrable effect of protecting a legitimate national security interest. He further said such a restriction is justified only if its effect is to protect a country's existence or its territorial integrity.[...]

“It is clear that the respondents’ attempt to hide behind the provisions of sections 3(6) & (7) of the Official Secrets Act flies in the face of Article 35[...]

wo activists is a violation of Article 10 of t[...]argued that documents related to the SGR project and its financing have never been made public despite being one of the most expensive p [...].

Transport Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge, [...]said that agreements entered between the government and Chinese contractors over the construction of the SGR had non-disclosure clauses.[...]if the orders sought were granted, it would injure relations between Kenya and China and would stifle the successful implementation of the National Transport Policy.