Mozilla applauds Kenya’s passage of data protection law

Mozilla has applauded the Kenyan government on its decision to ratify Kenyan Data Protection and Privacy Act of 2019, assented to by President Uhuru Kenyatta last Friday.

“It is indeed a huge milestone that sees Kenya become the latest addition to the list of countries with data protection related laws in place; providing much needed safeguards to its citizens in the digital era,” said the company in a statement.

Kenya has attracted foreign firms with innovations such as Safaricom’s M-Pesa mobile money services, but the lack of safeguards in handling personal data has held it back from its full potential, officials say.

The new law sets out restrictions on how personally identifiable data obtained by firms and government entities can be handled, stored and shared, the government said.

Strong data protection laws are critical in ensuring that user rights are protected; that companies and governments are compelled to appropriately handle the data that they are entrusted with.

“As part of its policy work in Africa, Mozilla has been at the forefront in advocating for the new law since 2018. The latest development is most welcome, as Mozilla continues to champion the 5 policy hotspots that are key to Africa’s digital transformation,” read in part the statement.

The law also imposes strong obligations placed on data controllers and processors. It requires them to abide by principles of meaningful user consent, collection limitation, purpose limitation, data minimization, and data security.

The firm has however called for an inclusion to the requirement for robust protections of data subjects with the rights to rectification, erasure of inaccurate data, objection to processing of their data, as well as the right to access, and to be informed of the use of their data; with the aim of providing users with control over their personal data and online experiences.