The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has embarked on a mission to sensitise the public on the issues of data protection.
Speaking during a workshop that brought together representatives from various government departments in Migori, the ODPC official, Ms. Sumaiyah Omar, said that they aimed to equip the public with enough knowledge on the mandate and core responsibilities of the ODPC office in terms of data protection.
The office ODPC is a government institution mandated with the regulation of the processing of personal data to provide for the rights of data subjects and obligations of data controllers and processors for connected purposes. The office was established by the Data Protection Act of 2019.
ODPC Act 2019 regulates the collection, processing and storage of personal data by both government and private organisations. The Act also establishes an ecosystem of rights and obligations that operationalizes the right to privacy enshrined in the Kenyan constitution.
Sumaiyah noted that ODPC office had embarked on an awareness campaign as an important aspect of sensitising the public on matters of data protection compliance requirements, data registration, and the rights of citizens in collecting, accessing and retrieving their personal data.
The official emphasised that citizens had the right to be informed, the right to access their personal data, the right to correction and the right to deletion in protect their privacy.
She added that ODPC has partnered with the Kenya School of Government (KSG) to train organisations on data protection in order to create awareness and improve their skills.
ODPC official Isaac Okoth said that the office has so far managed to register 2305 data controllers and processors. The ODPC has also been able to receive 2831 complaints, of which 922 were admitted, 1895 declined and 29 are still under review.
Okoth acknowledged that so far, the ODPC has opened offices in Nakuru, Kisumu and Mombasa in order to serve the public effectively.
The data protection sensitization exercise came at a time when Worldcoin had been collecting data from Kenyans. The government, however, was able to suspend Worldcoin as authorities investigated the possible security and data protection threats associated with the eyeball-scanning cryptocurrency scheme.
So far, 36 African countries, Kenya included, have data protection Acts or regulations in place, while sixteen countries have signed the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection.
By Geoffrey Makokha
