Finance Committee Drops Controversial Clause On Data Access

The Finance Committee has dropped the controversial clause 63 of the Finance Bill 2024 which would have exempted Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) from the Data Protection Act.

A report of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning on its consideration of the Finance Bill 2024 stated that dropping the clause would prevent KRA from misusing the powers granted by the amendment of Data Protection Act.

“It was KNCCI’s submission that there was no problem with the current system of obtaining information from taxpayers by the revenue authority using court orders when seeking information from a taxpayer. Further, it was their submission that the public needs to be confident that the integrity of their personal information is guaranteed as such they queried whether safeguards had been put in place to ensure that the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) did not misuse the powers granted by the amendment of the Data Protection Act,” the report says.

The Finance Bill had proposed to exempt KRA from the provisions of the Data Protection Act to snoop on individual’s private financial information without a court order.

Enacted in 2019, the Data Protection Act in Kenya regulates the processing of personal data. It was established to provide for the rights of data subjects and obligations of data controllers.