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A joint National Assembly Ad Hoc Committee of Inquiry into the activities of the foreign company Worldcoin kicked off its investigative process today Monday, August 21, 2023.
The committee, led by Chairperson Hon. Gabriel Tongoyo, will inquire into the legal and regulatory compliance of the operations of Worldcoin and its subsidiary partners, potential health hazards caused by the scan, the intended use of the data collected, and its safety in the hands of the collector.
Top on the list of witnesses and experts scheduled to appear before the committee include the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and the Ministry of Health.
The committee will also hold a meeting with the company at the center of the controversy, Worldcoin, to understand its operations and the ultimate objectives of its data harvesting exercises in Kenya.
The joint Ad Hoc Committee is composed of seventeen members drawn from the Departmental Committees on Administration and Internal Security; Communication, Information and Innovation; and Tourism and Wildlife.
The committee’s work is expected to be completed within 90 days.
In a statement, Hon. Tongoyo said that the committee’s work is “quite cut out for us” and that they will be calling in a number of witnesses, including experts, to shed more light on the matter.
“We have very limited time to ensure that Kenyans get all the answers they deserve,” he said.
The committee’s investigation comes after Worldcoin was suspended from operating in Kenya in August 2023 following concerns about the legality of its data collection practices.
Worldcoin is a cryptocurrency project that uses iris scans to create a unique identifier for each user. The company has said that the data collected will be used to prevent fraud and financial crimes.
However, critics have raised concerns about the privacy implications of the data collection, as well as the potential for the data to be used for other purposes, such as marketing or surveillance.
The committee’s investigation is seen as an important step in ensuring that the rights of Kenyans are protected in relation to the use of their personal data.
