Kenyan committee given 42 days to investigate Worldcoin activity

Kenya’s parliament has established a government committee tasked with probing controversial eyeball-scanning crypto project Worldcoin and its rollout in the country.

As reported by local outlet The Star, the committee is composed of 15 members of parliament from across the Administration and Internal Security, Communication and Innovation, and Tourism and Wildlife departments.  

National Assembly, one of the two houses of parliament in Kenya, told the committee it has 42 days to investigate Worldcoin’s activities.

The project was launched internationally on July 24. As part of its Kenyan rollout, it set up a site at a Nairobi convention center where residents could hand over their iris data through Worldcoin ‘orbs’ in exchange for crypto. 

However, following a review from Kenyan regulatory bodies, Worldcoin was deemed to have “a number of legitimate regulatory concerns that require urgent attention,” and the government suspended the project.

Read more: Worldcoin suspended in Kenya as Europe probes crypto project

The Communications Authority cited in its review of Worldcoin “a lack of clarity on the security and storage of the collected sensitive data, inadequate information on cybersecurity safeguards and standards, and massive citizen data in the hands of private actors without an appropriate framework.”

Earlier this month, police in Nairobi raided a Worldcoin warehouse and seized numerous machines involved in the storing of iris data collected from Nairobi residents.

According to reports, earlier this month, Worldcoin’s parent company Tools for Humanity ignored an order from Kenya’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) to stop collecting personal data.

The project is also under scrutiny from various security, financial, and protection agencies.

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