•Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu and Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait meet Thursday to discuss the matter.
•Kassait said that she has also scheduled a meeting with political parties in a bid to establish how and why they registered Kenyans without their consent.
Image: ICT MINISTRY
Major political parties are set to lose members if the office of Registrar of Political Parties and that of Data Protection agree to strike off members who were registered without their consent.
Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu and Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait will meet on Thursday to discuss the matter.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of public uproar after revelations some Kenyans have been registered as political party members without their knowledge.
Last month, Kenyans protested against breach of their privacy after their personal data was used to register them behind their back.
Appearing before the Senate Committee on ICT on Wednesday, Kassait said the act amounted to a breach of privacy, adding her office has moved to fix the problem after receiving numerous complaints.
“We have received at least 300 complaints from people who were registered wrongly in political parties,” Kassait said.
Kassait said that she has also scheduled a meeting with political parties in a bid to establish how and why they registered Kenyans without their consent.
The meeting will also identify the gap that could have created room for manipulation of personal data.
At least three political parties have so far written to the registrar to deregister those people.
Kassait appeared before the panel chaired by Baringo Senator Gideon Moi alongside ICT CS Joe Mucheru and Communications Authority acting director general Mercy Wanjau.
They had been summoned to explain the protection of data by telecommunication companies and measure to protect Kenyans from cyberbullies.
Mid last month, most Kenyans were shocked and angered when they leant through an online portal on eCitizen, shared out by the office of the registrar, that they belong to various political parties.
They said they had been registered as members of ANC, Ford Kenya, Jubilee and ODM among other top political outfits in the country.
They termed the revelations a breach of the right to privacy and demanded answers from the registrar’s office.
However, Nderitu defended her office, saying that registration of party members is done by political parties.
“Recruitment of members is done by political parties in line with respective party constitutions; section 7, Political Parties Act, 2011, second schedule to Political Parties Act paragraph six,” the office said.
Mucheru said that his ministry through CAK and the office of the Data Commissioner have crafted stringent regulations to enforce Data Protection Act, 2019.
The regulations, which were developed by a task force, he said, will define how private data should be handled and used between various stakeholders.
The regulations will also combat social medial bullying, including harassment by online lenders.
“The people who are being harassed for taking loans. You take loans and then the company has addresses to your phonebook and they call your in-law to say you have not paid. Hopefully, with the regulations, we will be able to stop all these,” he said.
The regulations set out procedures that will be adopted by the office of the data commissioner in registering data controllers and data processors.
They also outline the enforcement provisions, procedures for enforcement rights to data subjects as an elaboration on the duties and obligations of the data controllers and processors.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris