A week after a section of Kenyans went on the rampage on social media to protest against fraudulent registration as members of political parties, the inaugural data protection commissioner Immaculate Kasait has broken her silence by issuing a statement on the same.
“As of 24th June 2021, the office of data commissioner had received over 200 complaints from aggrieved individuals who had been registered to various political parties without their consent, and after holding a meeting with the registrar of political parties to establish the status, they resolved that all names of complainants be deregistered by political parties,” said Kasait.
The office of data protection says it will now embark on creating awareness and development of sector-specific guidelines in consultation with Data Controllers and Data Processors.
She called for patience of those aggrieved and assured the general public that the office will take steps to safeguard their data as per the law.
When asked to explain whether the office had managed to establish how data was fraudulently obtained and what action will be taken against political parties involved to act as deterrent measure and why aggrieved Kenyans were being subjected to a tedious process of deregistering from parties yet they were fraudulently registered, office of data protection commissioner says: “In order to ensure the office acts in a manner that promotes fair justice it will undertake a preliminary investigation as a normal course upon receipt of information relating to an alleged breach of the act.”
