Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and his ICT counterpart Eliud Owalo have been given one week to provide substantive answers on the world coin cryptocurrency data mining scandal.
National Assembly speaker Wetangula granted the two CSs seven days 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 mined by the firm.
Wetangula also directed the office of the data protection commissioner to be excepted from the multi-agency probe alluding that it could be compromised.
Yesterday, the two CSs appeared before the floor of the National Assembly to answer to lawmakers concerns over the illegal data mining activities by the foreign firm amidst claims of security gap that allowed for the company to operate in the country.
“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.
Lawmakers gave the two cabinet secretaries a hard time to explain whether the country was safe why the government took time to respond to the issue.
Kindiki revealed that investigation conducted thus far have established that crimes were committed during Worldcoin operations assuring that measures will be taken to change those responsible.
“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,” stated Kindiki.
The Interior Boss pointed out that the government will fast 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 coming days after the Ministry of Interior issued a freeze order on the movement into and out of the country for all those involved in the scandal.
“By the time government is coming in, we must have reasonable information that crimes have been committed. This issue is a serious threat just like terrorism, banditry and the sale of drugs and also just like those who want to intimidate us to use politics to commit crimes,” Kindiki said.
“Kenya is safe. But I urge Kenyans that even as we go forward in the technological world we must be alert to the fact that the risks in the physical space are the same in the digital space,” he added.
CS Owalo assured that the multi-agency team investigating the matter will be keen to establish whether the Worldcoin mining data project was an attack on the nation.
“Globally, data is the new oil and we cannot block our eyes from the interest in our data by foreign entities. We will be able to ascertain the viability of the fears of those saying that what happened was as a result of foreigners having an interest in our data,” said Owalo.
The ICT Cabinet Secretary also expressed that the operationalization of the project by the foreign firm through monetary inducement for data raised eyebrows on the authenticity of the data collection.
“At no point has there been a disparity in the position I took and the action by the Interior CS. I explained that at the point of registration they had met the bare minimum requirements as a data collection firm but.in the course of operationalization, certain issues on policy, laws and regulations emerged and in the course of the day government took action on them,” observed the ICT CS.
The issue on the transparency of the operations of Worldcoin had been raised in in France, India, Germany, UK and other countries.
