Kenya’s parliament has approved a draft Data Protection Bill in light of mass rejection of the government’s plan to create a central digital database, National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS), locally known as Huduma Namba. In a tweet, the State Hse revealed that Parliament had approved the Bill; this is on top of President Kenyatta’s announcement of the same.
This approval was necessitated by the need to put people at ease with regards to Huduma Namba, an exercise that has been widely resisted by majority of the Kenyan populous. This is mainly because the government has done little in the way of clarifying why people should register.
The Kenyan High Court deemed registration for the number not mandatory, and also barred the government from collection biometric data (DNA, iris information, et cetera), which was one of the major causes of public outcry.
Part IV of the progressive draft Data Protection Bill examines the principles and obligations of personal data protection. It states that sensitive personal data must not be abused or misused.
Part VII of the bill allows the Government powers of discretion with regards to the collection, processing and storage of personal data.
What exactly is personal data? The interpretation of personal data is rather blurry with experts differing on what the term refers to precisely. As such, analysts argue that should the Bill be approved, could possibly operate as a check on the Kenyan Government’s discretion to expand the scope of what exactly ‘personal data’ means whenever it suits them.
