ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo clarified on Wednesday the circumstances that led to conflicting statements from his ministry and the Ministry of Interior regarding the Worldcoin saga.
Speaking when he appeared before MPs to shed light on various issues in his ministry, Owalo explained that the disparity in the statements was based on his ministry's assessment which had initially established that Worldcoin's operations in the country at the time were legal and above board.
Owalo expressed regret over the situation, clarifying that his ministry never intended to portray the government negatively or as a confused administration. He emphasised that his ministry has since implemented the appropriate corrective actions.
"At the moment, the information which I had indicated that the company was legally collecting and processing data in the country.
"Worldcoin was not registered as a company in Kenya but a data processor, which means, under Data Protection Act, they were rightfully in the country," Owalo stated.
Owalo was hard-pressed to explain his source of information, which seemed to differ with that of Interior CS Kindiki.
The MPs also wanted to know why a company blocked from processing data in another country was freely allowed to harvest data in Kenya.
Responding to the question, Owalo explained that Worldcoin presented itself as a safe technology company by virtue of its vast experience in the world of data mining and processing.
Further, the ICT Cabinet Secretary noted that privacy concerns notwithstanding, the world is fast moving into the Artificial Intelligence era and embracing it is inevitable.
The MPs expressed concerns over possibility that the data collected from Kenyans could be used for the wrong reasons.
Owalo's grilling came one week after he claimed that Worldcoin was operating in the country legally which prompted MPs to summon him after various stakeholders raised concerns over the safety of Kenyans data. At the time, the Cabinet Secretary said the government was aware of the company's operations.
At the time, the cabinet secretary claimed that Worldcoin had sought clearance from the relevant agencies months before beginning harvesting data by scanning Kenyans' eyes.
"This is something that started in April. We have a fully-fledged Data Commissioner’s office charged with the regulation of data security and privacy,” Owalo stated during an interview.
"In April, the Office of the Data Commissioner got wind of Worldcoin and wrote them a letter to clarify what they wanted to do.”
However, minutes later, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki stated that the cryptocurrency firm was not licensed to operate in Kenya.
"An application for a certificate of registration only signifies that the entity has complied with sections 18 and 19 of the Act and does not endorse an entity's compliance with the Data Protection Act or its subsidiary regulations, nor is it a valid license for organisations to operate in Kenya or authorise the operations of an entity," CS Kindiki stated.
Appearing before the same MPs, Kindiki noted that his Ministry took action to close it until facts are established.
"Further, it does not amount to certification of the processing activities of an entity or serve as an endorsement from this Office of an entity’s compliance with other provisions of the Act or any other laws," Kindiki stated.
