Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki on Thursday, August 3, revealed that two Kenyans and several foreigners linked to WorldCoin have been barred from travelling outside the country as the police continue with their investigations.
The CS, in a joint statement with his ICT counterpart Eliud Owalo, noted that the two Kenyan officials were still being grilled by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
The duo is reported to have been tasked with overseeing the operations of the digital currency in the country.
Kindiki added that the two, together with other foreigners of interest in the case, will have to seek permission from the DCI to travel out of Kenya.
“The entity is not a registered legal entity in Kenya. Preliminary investigations revealed that the entity hired a company in Kenya to do the data collection.
“A foreign national associated with WorldCoin is on record to have entered Kenya on several occasions, the last one being in June 2023,” read the statement in part.
Kindiki added that WorldCoin has also been directed not to process data it had already collected from Kenyans.
It was confirmed to the parliamentarians that WorldCoin began its operations in Kenya in May 2022.
“A registration certificate was issued to WorldCoin on April 18 2023 following receipt of the requisite documentation pursuant to the Data Protection Registration Regulations.
“Immediate mitigation steps being undertaken include the constitution of a multi-agency team comprising of security, financial services and data protection agencies to commence inquiries and investigations to establish the legality of the activities of WorldCoin,” read the statement in part.
Kindiki and Owalo’s statement came a day after National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula directed the duo to submit a preliminary report on remedies undertaken to safeguard the data for Kenyans.
This was after thousands of Kenyans queued at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) to register for the technology that was scanning users’ iris.
Successful applicants were receiving tokens of up to Ksh7,000 upon successful registration.
