Safaricom, Kenya’s telecommunications giant has been slammed with a KES 115 trillion lawsuit due to an alleged data leak of 11.5 million consumers. The suit was filed at a Kenyan court earlier in June 2019 after a data leak of a database that contains personal details and sports betting history of customers.
The suit was reportedly filed by Benedict Kabugi, a Safaricom customer who alleged that he was approached by someone in possession of the leaked data. According to a part of Kabugi’s lawsuit, “the data, which the petitioner herein viewed personally, was specifically of gamblers who had used their Safaricom mobile numbers to gamble on various betting platforms registered in Kenya”
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The leaked data contained full names, mobile phone numbers, gender, age, identity numbers, passport numbers, as well as the total amounts gambled, of customers who used their Safaricom phone numbers to gamble on betting platforms in Kenya.
However, this will not be the first time customers personal data will be leaked in Kenya. In October 2016, a Burundian hacker discovered a bug on one of East Africa’s largest Bank, KCB Group’s banking app. The bug led to the leak of over 500,000 customers personal details. No legal action, however, was taken regarding the issue till date, considering that Kenya has no data protection law in place.
Kabugi’s lawsuit borders on the argument that Article 31 of Kenya’s constitution protects the privacy of communications.
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