On 21 November 2018, digital market experts urged the government to revise Kenya’s Data Protection Bill, 2018, warning that its current wording could damage the economy.
The biggest objection is a clause that would criminalise sending Kenyans’ sensitive personal data outside the country. Critics say that move could disrupt the cross-border data flows that support trade, cloud services and wider commercial activity.
Sabina Frizell, a global public policy manager at Visa, Inc. focused on technology policy in emerging markets, argued in a blog that modern business depends on data moving across borders. She said: “Nearly every sector collects, processes, and analyzes data. If companies aren’t transferring it across borders to export and reach a new consumer base, they’re likely using data infrastructure such as cloud computing—which at its core relies on data not being relegated to a country’s borders.”
The warning was especially directed at small and medium-sized enterprises, which the experts said would feel the pressure most if the Bill passed in draft form. Cross-border data sharing, they said, helps SMEs plug into global value chains, reach customers beyond Kenya and use cloud platforms instead of spending scarce money on local data centres and in-house security systems.
Frizell said the proposed limits would erase those gains. “The restrictions in Kenya’s new bill will undercut these benefits,” she said.
The Bill does set out conditions for allowing transfers outside Kenya, but the requirements are described as complex. According to the experts, that complexity could shut startups and SMEs out of the system entirely.
Frizell also warned that larger firms may not escape the burden. “And even if large companies have the staff to comply, the overly narrow and at times unclear exceptions will not provide for the truly open data flows that their business operations require,” she said.
The source material also points to the bill’s 2016 policy background through the linked government document path, while the article itself was published in 2018. The critics’ position was clear: the government should adjust the draft before it becomes law, or risk creating rules that slow business rather than protect it.
