Kenya has commenced talks with the European Union (EU) that if successful, could see local data protection standards recognised and classified as of a similar level with those of the union members in a move that will pave the way for the free flow of personal data between both jurisdictions without any additional regulatory restrictions.
Among the benefits that Kenya would stand to gain if the adequacy decision were reached include a boost in digital trade, access to Europe’s vast data economy estimated to be worth over 800 billion Euro by 2025, as well as an increase in accessibility of data in a range of areas such as research.
The development would also unlock investment opportunities in business process outsourcing (BPO) and digital services exports.
The EU Deputy Head of Mission to Kenya Ondrej Simek told delegates, at the ongoing three-day Network of African Data Protection Authorities (NADPA) conference in Nairobi, over the next three months, the EU representatives in Kenya will be working closely with local authorities to explore the possibility of building a safe data bridge between the two economies.
“For the EU, the most comprehensive legal mechanism for free and safe cross-border data flows is an adequacy decision. An adequacy decision means that a country outside of the EU is considered as providing a similar level of protection for personal data as the level of protection within the EU. As a result, personal data can flow freely between both jurisdictions without any additional regulatory restrictions or conditions,” said Simek.
“Kenya and the European Union have started the very first Adequacy Dialogue on the African continent. This dialogue builds on the many commonalities shared by our respective data protection regimes. If successful, these talks could result in an adequacy finding for Kenya.”
The diplomat noted that under such an arrangement, Kenya would in a way be assimilated to an EU Member State as far as data protection is concerned. This means that data would flow between, for instance, Paris and Nairobi as freely as it flows between Paris and Berlin.
The disclosure of the talks comes just months after the EU signed the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Kenya in a deal that set the pace for trade liberation, offering tariff-free and quota-free access of local exports to the EU. The groundbreaking deal was the culmination of an eight-year negotiation process.
