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Kenya Adopts Data Protection Law To Encourage Tech Investments

Kenya Adopts Data Protection Law To Encourage Tech Investments

Written by Staff

Nov 16, 2019

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The president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, approved a data protection law that complies with European Union legal standards. KENYA, Nairobi: In a photograph taken by the Kenyan Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism (MEAACT) 22 July 2015, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta speaks during the opening ceremony of the Pre-Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) Expo being held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in the Kenyan capital Nairobi ahead of US President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated visit to the east African nation this weekend. The Pre-GES Expo being held over the 22-23 July in the Kenyan capital showcases Kenyan start-ups, innovators, entrepreneurs and small businesses from across the country with the main Global Entrepreneurship Summit taking place for the first time in sub-Saharan Africa this weekend bringing together entrepreneurs at all stages of business development, business leaders, mentors, investors and high-level government officials. MANDATORY CREDIT: MEAACT PHOTO / STUART PRICE. Photo via Flickr

Kenya just took a big step towards its tech development. On November 8th Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta approved a data protection law that complies with European Union legal standards. This will finally allow Kenya to embrace its full potential when it comes to tech innovations and startups and to attract more investments in its information technology center.

This new law will set out guidelines on how personally identifiable data acquired by firms and government entities can be used, stored or shared. As the minister of information, technology, and communication, Joe Mucheru said Kenya has joined the global community in terms of data protection standards by adopting the new regulations.

Story from Finextra. Story by Konstantin Rabin.

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulations came into effect in May of last year. Its main purpose is to give control to individuals over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by requesting that they comply with EU guidelines. So any country that wishes to conduct business with European Union should consider that businesses that handle personal data must be built around these guidelines and consider the principle of the EU GDPR, which above all means disclosing any data collection, and the legal basis for it along with its purpose. 

Kenya has been developing at an impressive speed, with Kenyan brokers attracting more attention, while more companies look to invest but this change has already brought some tangible results for the country, with Amazon announcing its plans to set up a part of its cloud infrastructure in Kenya. This could be a fresh start for Kenyan tech communities and an opportunity to enhance the customer experience as well

The East African Nation has become a hub for technological innovations in the region, with one of the most famous services, Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money, which has been around for a while, but since Kenya, didn’t have any regulations on data protection, the investors were discouraged to invest. In the end, the firm didn’t have the chance to reach its full potential. That is until now. Under the new law, the violations of data privacy law will result in a maximum fine of 3 million shillings ($29,283) or two years in jail and will be investigated by an independent office. 

This is a big step towards creating an environment where tech innovations can thrive and develop but as a senior policy manager at the World Wide Web Foundation, Nanjira Sambuli told the media, adopting the law is one thing while actually following through and implementing it is another. The true success of the new law will be determined only after we see how it performs and whether or not it will bring actual changes to the way data protection is regulated in Kenya.

Read more at Finextra.

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