Invitation to Data Protection Forum and Submission of Comments to Kenya Data Protection Bills (Thursday 23 August, 2018)

Dear partner ,

Greetings from ARTICLE 19 Eastern Africa.

ARTICLE 19 in partnership with the *Centre for Intellectual Property
and Information Technology*Law (*CIPIT*- Strathmore University Law
School) and Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANET) seek to convene a
one day Data Protection Dialogue Forum from *8**am – 5:30pm*on
/*Thursday 23 August, 2018). */

While, the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 guarantees freedom of
expression and the right to privacy, under Article 31 and 33; Kenya
lacks a legally binding comprehensive data protection framework
while also retaining laws which are broad and can be used to
infringe on privacy on citizen data.

The lack of a comprehensive data protection law and existence of
laws that can be broadly interpreted to allow for free collection of
personal data, storage, usage, and dissemination to other parties
has created a situation where citizens are not notified whenever
their data is collected and do not have remedies whenever their data
is breached on unnecessarily retained by both public and private actors.

We note that the ICT committees of the Senate led by Hon Gideon Moi has
drafted a Data Protection Bill 2018 and similarly, the Ministry of ICT
Taskforce on the Development of the Policy and Regulatory Framework for
Privacy and Data Protection in Kenya, chaired by Communications
Authority’s Mercy Wanjau has developed a Policy and a draft Data
Protection Bill aimed at a Regulatory Framework for Privacy and Data
Protection in Kenya and to fill this gap.

Please find below the links to the Data Protection Policy and Ministry
Bill and the Senate Bill.

jadili.ictpolicy.org/docs/privacy-and-data-protection-policy-and-bill-,2018

jadili.ictpolicy.org/docs/the-data-protection-bill,-2018-ch9IKrCm

It is with this in mind that the 3 partner organizations and will be
meeting multiple data protection experts, lawyers, academia/ data
scientists, CSOs, journalists and bloggers to collate recommendations
for policy reform on from *8**am – 5:30pm*on /*Thursday 23 August,
2018)*/at Strathmore Law School.

Kindly confirm your availability at your earliest convenience to
_ephraim@article19.org <mailto:ephraim@article19.org>_

Please note that even though you might not be able to participate
physically, you can nominate a representative or comment on this bills
and Policy via the links above.

We look forward to your participation.

Best regards,