The government has begun the process of collecting public views on radical regulations seeking to provide a framework to protect the country's cyberspace.
The National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NC4) said the public participation exercise on the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act regulations, 2023 shall take 10 days.
According to a statement by Interior and National Administration Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo, the public participation engagements will run until September 22, beginning Tuesday.
The regulations will operationalise the Computer Misuse and Cyber Crimes Act 2018.
Omollo is the the chairperson of the NC4 which is mandated to coordinate all cyber security matters in the country through timely and effective detection, prohibition, prevention, response, investigation and prosecution of computer and cyber crimes.
The engagements will be conducted through physical and virtual meetings in eight regions including the Coast, Nyanza, Central, Western, Rift Valley, Eastern, North Eastern and Nairobi.
The regulations are intended to provide a framework to monitor, detect and respond to cybersecurity threats within Kenya’s cyberspace and ensure the protection of our Critical Information Infrastructure.
The regulations also provide for recovery plans in the event of a disaster, breach or loss of national critical information infrastructure or any part of it.
''As a constitutional prerequisite, the Ministry of Interior and National Administration published a public participation and consultations notice inviting institutions, organizations and individuals to review and submit their comments on the draft regulations,'' Omollo said.
The regulations provide for recovery plans in the event of a disaster, breach or loss of national critical information infrastructure or any part of it.
The public participation exercise aims at incorporating extensive input from all stakeholders, key among them wananchi, in creating a safe and trusted cyberspace for the people of Kenya.
''Members of the public are also encouraged to attend the physical public engagement meetings that will be conducted across the country as per the schedule published on local dailies and on our official digital platforms,'' said Omollo.
The NC4 will also hold sectoral meetings with industry stakeholders of various sectors likely to be impacted by the regulations including the departments of ICT and telecommunications, energy, transport, manufacturing and Banking.
Other sectors that will make their submissions are the sectors related to insurance, finance, electoral, judicial, health, education food, water, land, defence, security and public safety.
The sectoral meetings will likewise include professional bodies and associations, local and international Cybersecurity, ICT practitioners and representatives from interest groups (Women, Youth and PWDs).
Already NC4 has prepared and gazetted the Regulatory Impact Statement (RIA)with an evaluation of the costs and benefits of the regulations.
The NC4 committee is composed of the Interior PS who is the chairperson, the PS for ICT and Digital Economy, the Attorney-General, the Chief of the Kenya Defense Forces, the Inspector-General of the National Police Service, the Director-General of the National Intelligence Service and Director-General of the Communications Authority of Kenya.
Others are the Director of Public Prosecution, the Governor of the Central Bank and the Director of the Secretariat who is also the secretary of the committee.