The ad-hoc Committee of parliament investigating WorldCoin activities in Kenya published the report of its findings and recommendations, in which it says the cryptocurrency project violated Kenya laws and its activities constituted acts of espionage and a threat to statehood.
“WorldCoin, Tools For Humanity Corp (USA), and Tools For Humanity GmbH (Germany) do not appear in the Business Registration Services database of registered businesses and companies in Kenya and hence lack the legal mandate to transact any business in Kenya according to PART XXXVII of the Companies Act, 2015,” the committee of 18 lawmakers said in its report.
According to the Committee, while Tools for Humanity, which initiated WorldCoin, is registered in the country as a data controller, data gathered from Kenyans was moved to WorldCoin Foundation, which was neither registered as a data controller nor as a processor.
WorldCoin gained notoriety in Kenya as hundreds thronged some venues in the country to register to the WorldCoin program by scanning their iris using WorldCoin’s Orb device and receiving 25 WLD tokens, approximately Ksh7,700 ($54.60) at the time.
The committee also established that the Orb is a telecommunication device with the ability to transmit real-time iris images converted into digital code to third-party servers hosted outside Kenya and not a bio-metric scanner as WorldCoin reportedly declared at the point of entry in Kenya.
Since the orbs, several of which were seized from WorldCoin warehouses in Nairobi, are telecommunication devices, the committee found that they did not go through type approval from Kenya’s Communication Authority, as well.
WorldCoin also deployed the orbs in over 30 locations in Nairobi, including malls and learning institutions, and started collecting data in May 2021 before registering as data controllers, contrary to the country’s laws. Kenyan agencies learnt of this in July 2023, when the ‘matter became of grave public concern.’
WorldCoin also disregarded a cessation directive issued by the Kenya Data Protection Commissioner on May 30 2023 and went on collecting sensitive data. The organization is also said to have continued registration of Kenyans on its platforms despite a court order and a government suspension of its activities in Kenya.
The committee made several recommendations, including for the government to develop a comprehensive oversight framework and policies on virtual assets and virtual assets service providers in Kenya, within six 6 months.
Kenyan law enforcement has also been asked to investigate WorldCoin and related entities and take legal action while the committee recommended the expulsion of WorldCoin in Kenya pending the presence of regulation.
The regulatory Communications Authority of Kenya should ‘disable the virtual platforms of Tools for Humanity Corp and Tools for Humanity GmbH Germany (Worldcoin) including blacklisting the IP addresses of related websites,’ the ad hoc panel said in the report.
The committee’s report can be found here.
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