Mombasa County Commissioner Mohammed Noor has cautioned the youth against misusing the internet, especially through trolling via social platforms reiterating that such action is a violation of human rights.
Speaking during the Annual Data Privacy Conference 2025 at the School of Government Mombasa, the County Commissioner called on parents to encourage their children to utilize the internet in an ethical manner in a way that will contribute to the country’s development.
“We have been having a challenge on the internet especially on Twitter and Tik tok where our Kenyan youth have been misusing the internet and sometimes even sharing personal contacts without consent by affected individuals, as well as making fake news about individuals to the point of using false death information,” Noor noted.
“Let us encourage our children to use the freedom of speech ethically so that they do not violate the rights of others in ways which can later land them in trouble,” he reiterated.
The conference, themed, ‘Safeguarding Personal Data to Spur Digital Transformation and Economic Development,’ and spearheaded by the Office of Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) aimed at discussing challenges facing data handlers and looking deeper into ways that data privacy could be enhanced to avoid criminal acts, cyberbullying among others.
Deputy Data Commissioner at the Head of Compliance Directorate ODPC Rosie Mosero, noted that the forum involved significant discussions that would look into the focus of data protection in the future due to technological advancements, enactment of new laws, and the upcoming adoption of Artificial Intelligence(AI).
She reported that ODPC has dealt with over 6,800 complaints from individuals since the Commission was introduced in the past 4 years and over 8,000 registrations of data processing organizations noting that this serves as proof that Kenyans are rapidly adopting the importance of Data Protection in various matters.
“One of the things that we are noticing from the audits that we conduct is, there is an increased willingness for us to conduct audits on behalf of organizations but also an increased uptake on building their compliance on the acts,” Mosero said.
She noted that the Commission is set to roll out a national advocacy programme across the country to ensure that they could reach a significant number of data controls and processes, reiterating that the Commission targets at least 120 constituencies in the project.
The Office of Data Protection Commissioner’s role includes regulating the processing of personal data, to ensure that the processing of personal a data subject is guided by the principles set out in section 25 of the Data Protection Act, to protect the privacy of individuals, to establish the legal and institutional mechanism to protect personal data and to provide data subjects with rights and remedies to protect their data from processing that is not in accordance with the Data Protection Act.
By Nuru Soud
