NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 10-Outgoing Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait says one of her biggest achievements during her six-year tenure was moving data protection from a largely unfamiliar regulatory issue to a national conversation.
Reflecting on her time at the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), Kassait said the office helped raise public awareness of the importance of protecting personal information and challenged institutions that had previously operated with little scrutiny of their data-handling practices.
“I think we’ve made data protection a conversation in this country,” she said, citing the office’s efforts to make organisations more accountable for how they collect and handle personal information.
Kassait recalled the resistance the office encountered when it began engaging organizations and demanding compliance with data protection requirements.
“Who are you?” she recalled some institutions asking when the regulator started writing to them.
She said the change in attitude towards data protection was among the developments that defined her tenure, as organizations increasingly had to account for how they processed personal information.
The outgoing commissioner said the work of the office also involved addressing complaints, investigating alleged breaches and determining appropriate action against organizations found to have violated data protection requirements.
She explained that complaints received by the office are first assessed to establish whether they fall within its mandate before investigations are undertaken.
