Parliament Sets Public Participation Date for Data Protection Bill 2019

The Data Protection Bill 2019 was proposed both in the National Assembly and the Senate. The duplicate bills, which are pursuing the same goal, have not seen much progress, a slowdown that has since been faulted by industry experts. The nation is subject to redundant or no data protection regulations, which has made it easier for IT companies to abuse the privilege of safeguarding customer data. Besides a couple of local organizations that have internal frameworks for protecting consumers, there is a general and hushed consensus that millions of Kenyans’ data has been, or will be used for marketing or any other dishonest purpose without their knowledge – and this vice is what the bills, or rather the bill aims to address.

A few weeks ago, the Senate had planned to vote on its version of the privacy bill. The development did not occur because the meeting was not attended by crucial parties such as representatives from the CBK, and Treasury and ICT Cabinet Secretaries. At one time, the ICT Ministry lobbied for the Senate Bill in place of Parliament’s, and further proposed the integration of provisions seen in global data privacy frameworks such as the GDPR. Also, suggestions have been made to harmonize the two bills, bearing in mind it will be wasteful to pursue bills that are meant to address the same thing.

That aside, the National Assembly has announced public hearings about the bill. The participations will be carried out across different parts of the country. The discussions are based on a constitutional article and a National Assembly Standing Order that call for the facilitation of public participation that should entail views and recommendations from Kenyans before a report is presented to the House.

The meets will be conducted in the following counties: