Kenya is preparing to overhaul how it regulates online shopping and digital trade, following new regional guidelines that recommend creating a specialized e-commerce unit to handle the country’s booming digital economy.
The Model E-Commerce Policy, backed by experts from 29 countries across eastern and southern Africa, calls for every member state to establish a National E-Commerce Unit.
These units would coordinate regulation, watch over digital marketplaces, and streamline how policies are implemented across the region.
The recommendation puts Kenya in an awkward position. The country is currently pushing legislation that would hand the Competition Authority of Kenya full control over e-commerce and digital markets.
However, the regional policy suggests a different path, one that could either force CAK to create a specialized department or lead to an entirely separate regulatory body.
Right now, Kenya’s approach to regulating online commerce is scattered. Multiple agencies handle different pieces: communications authorities deal with connectivity, competition watchdogs monitor market behavior, and data protection offices safeguard personal information. According to the proposed regional policy, this fragmentation creates problems.
The policy identifies fragmented governance, overlapping mandates, weak enforcement, and limited coordination with the private sector and civil society as key issues.
It recommends establishing national e-commerce units, developing harmonized laws, and strengthening consumer protection across the region.
Kenya’s digital economy has exploded in recent years, with more people shopping online, using digital payments, and engaging with platforms that barely existed a decade ago. But regulation hasn’t kept pace.
Issues like refunds, complaints, advertising standards, and platform dominance operate in a regulatory gray zone.
CAK’s current push to become the sole regulator of e-commerce has drawn criticism from local experts who worry it could slow innovation. The agency is seeking amendments to the Competition Act that would give it sweeping authority over digital markets.
Benard Dzwanda, COMESA’s director of infrastructure and logistics, explained that countries have flexibility in how they implement the recommendation.
He noted that “at the national level, there are a lot of dynamics, so we can only recommend, but the choice and the decision is ultimately that of the member states.”
That means CAK could expand by adding an e-commerce department that pulls expertise from data protection and communications agencies. Or Kenya could go in a completely different direction and create a standalone regulatory body.
Kenya’s draft National E-Commerce Policy, currently under consultation, doesn’t mention a national e-commerce unit. The new regional framework increases pressure on the government to reconsider its strategy as it moves forward with digital economy reforms.
