The National Assembly has given Interior Cabinet Secretary(CS) Kitrhure Kindiki and his ICT counterpart Eliud Owalo one week to provide answers on the Worldcoin cryptocurrency mining.
National Assembly speaker Moses Wetangula wants the two to shed light on how the company was registered, whether the data collected amounted to a breach of security and what measures have been put in place to guarantee the safety of data mining by the firm.
Further, Wetangula also directed the data protection commissioner's office to be excepted from the multi-agency probe, alluding that it could be compromised.
“I will give you another week and so you can come back with more detailed and satisfactory answers. please when responding you should give details of who licensed these people to operate in the country and more so from KICC which is a public facility,” said Wetangula.
The CSs on Wednesday appeared before parliament to answer Member of Parliament's concerns over the illegal data mining activities by the foreign firm amidst claims of a security gap that allowed the company to operate in the country.
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According to the two cabinet secretaries, MPs had difficulty understanding why the administration waited so long to address the matter and whether the country was safe.
According to Kindiki, investigations have proven that crimes were committed during Worldcoin activities, guaranteeing that action will be taken to hold those accountable.
“Crimes were committed; Crimes against the data protection act, crimes against the privacy of Kenyans and the crimes against the penal code have been committed and we will get all those involved so they can face justice,” Kindiki said.
Additionally, he pointed out that the government will fast-track track investigation, and it will move further to request other countries for the surrender of those outside Kenyan territory for them to record statements.
“The processors of data must obtain consent from Kenyans in line with our Data proction Act. If any consent was sought, which was doubtful, it was not acknowledged consent from Kenyans,” said Kindiki.
This comes a week after the government suspended all Worldcoin activities in the country due to security and safety concerns.
It also froze an order on the movement into and out of the country for all those involved in the scandal.
