Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti on Friday, November 8, acquired new equipment from the Government of Germany, to boost the war against crime in the country.
In an update posted on the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Twitter page, Kinoti announced that they had acquired an assortment of tools, amongst them the Universal Forensic Extraction Devices (UFED).
"The German Cooperation & the United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime led by Her Excellency the Ambassador of Germany to Kenya Ms. Annett Günther have today handed over an assortment of equipment to the DCI Kinoti," the tweet read.
According to Unival, a Germany-based group of companies specializing in governmental and corporate protection, UFED can access the physical, logical and file system data and passwords (even if they have been deleted) from the widest range of popular mobile phones, smartphones, portable GPS devices, and tablets.
Other equipment received by the DCI included the Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device (FRED) Digital Forensic Workstations, Assorted Office Furniture, Laptops & Desktop Computers among others.
The donated equipment are as a result of a cooperation pact between Kenya and Germany that was signed on December 7, 2018, at the Treasury buildings in Nairobi.
Both governments agreed to cooperate on among other things security and intelligence sharing, health and development of the Kenyan people.
The latest acquisition came with a backdrop of the passage of the Data Protection Bill (2019) that sought to block investigative agencies from accessing private data from citizens.
Ndung'u Wainaina, the executive director of the International Center for Policy and Conflict (ICPC), on Wednesday, October 23, weighed in on the bill, where he advised MPs to ensure that the bill went through so that Kenyans would continue to enjoy their privacy.
The DPP Noordin Haji had earlier on Tuesday, October 22, warned MPs against making amendments to the bill that, if passed, would block the agencies from accessing private data on citizens which would seriously hamper the war against corruption.
President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the bill into law on Friday, November 8, at State House. The new law establishes the office of the Data Commissioner and sets out the requirements for the protection of personal data processed by both public and private entities.
