Kenya: Republic v Joe Mucheru, Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Information Communication and Technology & 2 others; ex parte Katiba Institute & Yash Pal Ghai

Conclusion:

119. Regardless of what the future portends for the appeal against this honourable court’s decision in Petition No 284 of 2020, the 1st applicant in the motion dated 24 November 2020 merits the orders of certiorari and mandamus. To be precise, and for the avoidance of doubt, I hereby order as follows:
1.The order of certiorari is hereby issued to bring to into this honourable court and quash the respondents’ decision of 18 November 2020 to roll out Huduma Cards for being ultra vires section 31 of the Data Protection Act, 2019.
2.The order of mandamus is hereby issued compelling the respondents to conduct a data protection impact assessment in accordance with section 31 of the Data Protection Act, 2019 before processing of data and rolling out the Huduma Cards.

120. It has been a while since the rollout or the launch of the Huduma Card and it is not clear whether it is still on or has been concluded; it would be speculative to allow prayer (a) for the Order of Prohibition in these circumstances. In any event, having granted prayers (b) and (c) prayer (a) is as good as moot.