The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) on Monday lost a court battle against Google over a demand that the IT company provides data belonging to a suspect accused of hacking.
High Court Judge Pauline Nyamweya declared that the order issued to KRA by a Magistrate’s Court compelling Google Kenya to disclose the identity of the alleged hacker was irrational.
The local subsidiary informed the court that Google LLC was the company that owns the domain name to which the email of the alleged hacker belongs.
The firm explained that they did not have the authority to receive court orders on behalf of their parent company.
“It is thus evident that while the respondent in the said application was Google Inc., the orders sought against the respondent were instead issued against Google Kenya,” read Justice Nyamweya’s ruling.
She added, “To this extent, the order issued on January 9, 2018, cannot be explained by the facts and law.”
KRA was then directed to pay the tech giant for the costs it had incurred in filing the suit.
KRA claimed that a person using the email address wwarui@gmail.com had breached its computer systems and lead to the loss of crucial information.
This will send authority back to the drawing board in seeking ways of ensuring the integrity of its technology.
In 2017, a 28-year-old man, Alex Mutungi Mutuku, and 11 others were arraigned in court for hacking and causing the KRA a loss of Sh3.9 billion.
It was not clear whether the case is connected with the documents sought.
