DAMA Kenya Officially Launches To Strengthen Data Governance

Ninety-six per cent of African CEOs surveyed by KPMG for its 2025 Africa CEO Outlook said data readiness was a challenge. The same survey found that 71 per cent were investing in AI, while 26 per cent planned to allocate more than 20 per cent of their annual budget to it, nearly double the global average of 14 per cent.

The figures point to a challenge facing businesses investing in AI: preparing the data those systems depend on. That was the issue at the centre of the official launch of DAMA Kenya, which brought together data professionals, financial services executives and regulators in Nairobi on Tuesday.

DAMA Kenya is the Kenyan chapter of DAMA International, the global Data Management Association, which has spent decades establishing a common framework for managing data. Its Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK) covers areas including governance, quality, security, architecture and metadata. The association also offers the Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) credential. DAMA Kenya’s position is that data management should be treated as a profession and a core organisational capability, rather than just an IT function or a job title.

The launch brought together professionals responsible for data in banks, telecommunications companies and insurance firms, alongside Anastasia Kamande, Deputy Director and Chief Data Officer at the Central Bank of Kenya, and Emmanuel Mayo, Deputy Data Commissioner at the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC).

DAMA Kenya president Hartnell Ndungi welcomed attendees, describing the launch as the culmination of a journey that began in August 2023. “Today marks the culmination of an exciting journey,” Ndungi said.

He described an economy in which banks, telecommunications companies, insurers, universities and retailers are generating increasing volumes of digital information. The challenge, he said, is no longer simply obtaining data but ensuring that “the data is trusted, the data is governed, it’s secure, and accessible.”

Ndungi said the profession grew up in pieces. Data practice didn’t come out of one central effort; it grew inside individual organizations, each building its own way of doing things. “Everyone is a master of data in the organization,” he said, but the people doing the work rarely see what anyone else is doing. DAMA Kenya wants to bring some order to that, “not for the purpose of copying each other, but the purpose of building onto each other.”

DAMA Kenya wants to create opportunities for professionals to learn from one another and build on existing practices. As Ndungi put it, the goal is “not for the purpose of copying each other, but the purpose of building onto each other.”

The chapter began with seven friends working in the data space who met in August 2023 to discuss the idea. Ndungi said several of them had previously worked together on the same company’s data team, which he described as the first data team in a bank to be fully scaled.

According to figures provided by the chapter, DAMA Kenya has since grown to more than 900 members, 15 corporate partners and 50 events. It is led by an elected board comprising Ndungi as president, Dorothy Timina as vice president, Dr Paul Mungai as secretary general, Zipporah Muturi as treasurer, and Peter Migwi Kamoche, Patrick Kariuki and Peter Nderitu as board members.

Beyond establishing common practices among data professionals, Ndungi highlighted another challenge: getting organisations to use the data their teams produce.

He said data teams can struggle to gain the attention of business leaders when they rely heavily on technical language and professional certifications rather than explaining how their work supports business decisions. His approach is to build data literacy among board members and chief executives while working with other departments to demonstrate how data can help them do their jobs.

The issue also featured in the closing panel, which brought together Ndungi, Pathways Group CEO Joel Onditi and ODPC Deputy Data Commissioner Emmanuel Mayo.

Discussing artificial intelligence, Onditi said organisations could not afford to ignore its growing role in business. “AI is here with us. There’s no running away from AI,” he said, describing data as “the fuel that’s going to drive that engine,” with governance serving as quality assurance.

For organisations investing in AI, the discussion highlighted the importance of having data that is reliable, properly managed and handled in line with applicable requirements.

Mayo addressed the regulatory side of that responsibility, explaining that data governance and protection are ultimately about the people behind the information organisations collect and use.

“Data represents people,” he said, linking the Data Protection Act, 2019, to the right to privacy enshrined in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution.

He said the ODPC wanted to work with organisations to improve compliance rather than be seen solely as an enforcement body. “We did not come so much to enforce but to encourage compliance,” Mayo said.

He added that organisations should not view data protection as an obstacle to technological progress. “We are not here to stifle innovation. In fact, we are encouraging it. Only that we have the guardrails.”

Mayo urged data controllers and processors to begin their compliance journey, respond to data subjects’ requests and incorporate privacy considerations into the design of their systems and processes.

Onditi also saw a role for DAMA Kenya in helping businesses understand data protection requirements in the local context. He noted that some of the rules businesses follow, including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), originate outside Kenya.

For Mayo, the need for sound data management was particularly clear when organisations had to respond to requests from people whose information they hold.

“Organizations cannot protect data they cannot locate, they cannot secure information they do not understand, and they cannot effectively respond to data subject requests,” he said.

He expressed hope that DAMA Kenya would help strengthen data management practices among its members and encourage organisations to treat governance, data quality and privacy as integral parts of how they handle information.