The Communications Commission of Kenya headquarters in Nairobi. Photo/ANTHONY KAMAU


The telecommunications regulator has denied that it will spy on Kenyans’ online activities with the monitoring system it is installing, as pressure from consumers mount.
Communications Commission of Kenya said the system is only meant to monitor hostile traffic on Kenya’s cyber networks.
It also maintains that it is well within its mandate under the Information and Communications Act, CAP411 A, which deals with electronic transactions, to set it up.
“It is the role of the regulator to ensure that networks are secure. We want to promote e-commerce while protecting Kenyans who are using these cyber networks and infrastructure,” the commission’s acting director general Francis Wangusi told the Nation on Thursday.
The system is known as the Network Early Warning System.
“The system we are putting up does not have to read and disclose people’s information,” he said.
The commission added that it will sign a non-disclosure agreement, stipulating that information gathered will only be used to facilitate response to cyber incidents and shared only among concerned parties for transparency.
The regulator said it will, however, be the only custodian of the information gathered from the system.
Other countries that have implemented a similar system include Hungary, the United States and the United Kingdom. They justify putting up such systems on protection of critical government infrastructure.
“It will also make Kenya more attractive to new investment as investors will be sure that our ICT infrastructure is secured,” said Mr Wangusi.
The move has already sparked a heated debate among internet users, with most citing privacy concerns and the risks that could come with having their emails and online activities monitored.
But the commission said it will only monitor traffic, and has no intention of “spying on the over 11 million active internet users.
‘‘There is a thin line between privacy and security, but we have thought about how this can be anonymised, such that we do not see who it is that is online,” said Dr Catherine Getao, Director, E-government.