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{
"id": 942701,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/942701/?format=api",
"text_counter": 275,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo Mabona",
"speaker": {
"id": 376,
"legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
"slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
},
"content": "confirm that I will neither remember the name of Standing Orders in Kiswahili nor will I read it in Kiswahili. Where I come from, Kiswahili is not our language. So, I promise I will neither remember what the Standing Orders are called in Kiswahili nor will I read them. In principle, I support the Bill. I thank the Committee for bringing it. I am supporting in principle because if you look at the principle behind data protection, it is, indeed, noble especially because we are in a digitised era and most of our work is becoming digitised whether it is data or not. It, therefore, raises very significant issues of privacy and security including personal security. For women, it also includes issues of intimidation and bullying. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is also coming at a very good time when the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) just passed the Sexual Harassment and Bullying Policy which does not deal with data. But when you are talking as a woman, you will see the connection between security, cyber bullying and data. I know we have different legal frameworks for cyber protection, but I know that data, because of connectivity, can sometimes overrun the issue of cyber protection and bullying. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the reason I am talking in principle is because I support this, especially now that you have a lot of information and data collected by different agencies. People have spoken about the Huduma Namba. Recently, I attended court and I see it is almost totally digitised. Since we are going in that direction, we will have a lot of data and information that is kept especially in electronic form, whether it is criminal records or just normal records, and especially for those of us who protect children. We have instances of children who have gone through court when they are younger or as juveniles and their records should not be made available to the public. If that kind of data is made available sort of carelessly, then it is wrong. Indeed, this Bill is coming at a very good time. We must ensure that when data is given to Government agencies, then it is used for the intended purpose. I am glad Hon. Duale has spoken to what we witnessed in the last elections. I am actually considering doing my PhD around this issue whether some of the things that we glorify would not actually, indeed, be a bane; that we have over-glorified technology. If I compare the 10th Parliament, when we had no technology and the way to catch the Speaker’s eye was by standing up, sometimes that is even more democratic than when we rely on technology that only the Speaker can see. When everybody stands up, we can then see, for instance, whether Hon. Prof. Oduol has been standing up for 100 times, but when Hon. Millie walks in, she is favored against Prof. Oduol. So, there are also certain issues that may not necessarily be positive even with technology. Indeed, because of those challenges, we need this data protection. That is why I am referring to what Hon. Duale has said that even as we speak, the servers have not been opened so that we can check the issue of fingerprints. That is not even the greatest concern. My greatest concern is the way we allowed foreigners, not only to access our data, but also to take our data to foreign lands, manipulate it and use it against our own citizens. That is why this is coming at a very important time. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, again, you should look at the kind of data and information we have. That is why I am connecting it with the cyber protection regime that if you have mass data and I have seen it many times especially during elections times, people invade your privacy with a lot of unwanted and unsolicited information. Sometimes and especially for us as politicians, I do not want to eat and speak politics throughout. There are times I just want to close my life off politics, but I switch on my phone and I am inundated with all manner of things on politics. It is an invasion on my privacy. My privacy should only be invaded with my consent. So, there must be regulations and systems that allow people to use that kind of data. I know The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}