Kenya Says Registration of Sam Altman’s Worldcoin in April Not Endorsement

Kenya’s interior and information ministries in a joint statement addressed to the country’s National Assembly said the data controller registration certificate issued to Worldcoin on April 18, 2023, is not a valid license for the project to operate in the country. The country has, therefore, kicked off “criminal investigations” to establish “the authenticity and legality” of Worldcoin’s operations in the East African country.

Kenya Starts Criminal Investigation

According to details contained in the statement, a copy of which was posted on Facebook today (Thursday) by the Kenyan Ministry of Interior and National Administration, Worldcoin is “not registered as a legal entity in Kenya.” The statement is signed by the cabinet secretaries of the two ministries.

“An application for a certificate of registration only signifies that the entity has complied with sections 18 and 19 of the Data Protection Act, 2019, and does not endorse an entity’s compliance with the Act or its subsidiary regulations, nor is it a valid license for an organisation to operate in Kenya or authorize the operations of an entity,” the cabinet secretaries explained.

The information emerges a day after the interior ministry raised concerns about the activities of Worldcoin in Kenya and ordered the suspension of the project in the country. Worldcoin was created by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and requires users to scan their irises in exchange for free cryptocurrency. The project claims it wants to boost the adoption of cryptocurrencies by creating a global identity network.

Meanwhile, Worldcoin, according to the statement, first set up registration booths across Kenya in April last year ahead of the launch of its cryptocurrency which went live on Binancelate last month. The country’s data regulator, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) ordered the initial suspension of Worldcoin’s operations in May 2022 in order to investigate the case.

In May this year, ODPC, again “directed immediate cessation of processing of sensitive personal data,” according to the statement. This suspension was not lifted, the cabinet secretaries noted.

“The government has commenced investigations to ensure that Worldcoin complies with the data collection, storage and sharing principles,” the cabinet secretaries noted on the latest investigation. “Immediate mitigation steps being undertaken are the constitution of a multi-agency team comprising of security, financial services and data protection agencies [that] have commenced inquiries and investigations to establish the legality of the activities of Worldcoin, the safety and the protection of data collected with the aim to safeguard personal data and mitigate against any adverse practices.”

Meanwhile, while speaking with NTV, a local Kenyan station, earlier on Wednesday, Eliud Owalo, the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy, noted that Worldcoin’s activity did not violate any law but raised security and regulatory concerns.

“Information available to the Data Commissioner is that within the existing legal framework today, there is no provision in the law that the organization [Worldcoin] had negated. There has been correspondence between the Office of the Data Commissioner and the entity,” Owalo told the station.

“As far as the Data Act 2019 is concerned, they were acting within the law,” the minister further noted, adding that the government was approaching the issue from “a multi-faceted approach.”

Meanwhile, Finance Magnates reported that data and privacy regulators in France and the UK previously stated plans to also query Worldcoin.

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