Office of the Data Protection Commissioner did not carry out due diligence before registering Worldcoin activities in the country, ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo told Parliament on Monday.
The ICT minister said the data commissioner ignored serious red alerts about the company that had started operating in the country in 2021.
Appearing before the National Assembly Ad-hoc Committee on Worldcoin, Owalo wondered why the ODPC proceeded to register the foreign firm, even after it had recommended its suspension.
In his submissions before the committee chaired by Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo, the CS was quick to distance his ministry from the agency, which he said, works independently.
Alluding to a June 23 ODPC's directive that Worldcoin stop collecting sensitive personal dat of Kenyans, Owalo told the committee that it was illogical that the same firm was registered, despite not meeting the very concerns raised by the ODPC.
Apart from harvesting the sensitive personal data, the commissioner had raised concerns on the consent to transfer personal data, as well as impact assessment report submitted by the firm.
The ODPC also raised issues around legal basis anchoring the operations of the Worldcoin activities in the country.
Despite the concerns the ODPC went ahead to register Tools for Humanity (Germany) on September 15 last year.
The commissioner also issued a certificate of registration to Tools for Humanity USA on April 18, both for a period of two years.
According to Owalo, the commissioner ignored clear concerns that would have arrested the controversial activities that has now become a matter of inquiry by a parliamentary committee.
“Despite ODPC directing Worldcoin to cease operations in Kenya in June 2022 and citing noncompliance with the Data Protection Act (2019) and being dissatisfied with the Data Protection Impact Assessment that was submitted by Woldcoin, ODPC still proceeded to register Worldcoin as a Data Controller in 2023, even when the cessation order against them had not been lifted,” Owalo said.
“Despite ODPC directing Worldcoin to suspend their operations 60 days on June 23, 2022, the ODPC proceeded to issue a certificate of registration to Worldcoin.”
The CS was, however, put to task to explain his earlier claims that Worldcoin activities were voluntarily and that the company was operating in the country legally.
“There was a time you said Worldcoin were taking data voluntarily from Kenyans and crypto currency were operating here legally, are you sure about it?” Lamu Woman Representative Ruweida Mohamed said.
In his response, the CS defended his position, saying as much as the firm was duly registered but the certificate was not a license to breach the regulations in the sector.
“What I did say was that being informed by Data Protection Act, Worldcoin was duly registered by the Office of Data Protection Commissioner but based on the merging issues they didn’t conform to operations regulations,” he said.
The CS further said he has put in place a working group on sectoral reforms to review the entire policy, legal and regulatory framework to recommend requisite reforms to address gaps, as well as align to the new emerging realities.