The High Court has today lifted the ban that was in place against the infamous Maisha Namba rollout.
Maisha Namba Rollout had been declared unconstitutional and could not be rolled out by the government but the court transferred the case from the Judicial Review Court where the petition had been filed to the Constitutional Division of the High Court
This is after the Interior Ministry through its barristers, Morara, Apiemi and Nyangito Advocates argued that there was a risk of the two different court divisions making conflicting decisions since two matters had been filed touching on the same issues but in the different divisions.
The lawyers representing Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki also faulted Katiba Institute which filed the petition, noting that the non-governmental organisation did not disclose to the court the existence of another similar petition in a different court division
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This comes after the High Court suspended the rollout of the Maisha Namba. In his ruling, Justice John Chigiti agreed with the petitioners, Katiba Institute, that a data protection impact assessment was not done before the rollout.
“Upon perusing the Application alongside the annexures therein, I find that the Application is not frivolous nor vexatious. It raises an arguable case that should be heard and determined on merit within the Fair Administrative Action Act framework.”
According to Katiba Institute, the Interior Ministry did not conduct adequate public participation before proceeding with the rollout. This was in violating section 31 of the Data Protection Act which requires that data protection impact assessments be performed when there is a high risk to the rights and freedoms of data subjects
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“They (the government) remain intent on building the Maisha Namba on the shaky foundation of data illegally collected and processed during the Huduma Namba exercise.”