List of 40 digital lenders under probe for breaching the privacy of Kenyans

299 privacy breach complaints were raised against 40 digital lenders. [File, Standard]

Branch, Tala, MoKash, Credit Moja and Senti are among the 40 digital lenders facing 299 complaints for allegedly breaching Kenyans' privacy.

The Office of the Data Protection Commission (ODPC) says the 40 lenders have until October 18, 2022 to file their responses.

The commission said the digital lenders had initially received more than 500 complaints, which were whittled down to 299 valid concerns.

The complaints were filed by September 30, 2022.

The lenders are accused of, among others, breaching borrowers' privacy by accessing their contacts and calling them in efforts to coerce the borrower to offset his or her loan.

"According to Section 58(3) of the Data Protection Act, 2019, any person who, without reasonable excuse, fails to comply with an enforcement notice commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding Sh5 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or to both," said the commission in their press statement on Wednesday, October 5.

Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait said the digital lenders under investigation have until October 18 to file responses to the complaints raised.

"During the audit process, the aforementioned digital lenders will be required to provide this office with requisite documents by October 18, 2022 failure to which they will be deemed to have failed to cooperate with the office, which is an offence," she said in the press statement.

Below is the full list of the 40 digital lenders facing probe:

1. APESA/Zerox Technology Company Ltd
2. ASAPKASH/Joyot Technology limited
3. BRANCH
4. CASH
5. CASH SEA
6. COLLECTPLUS-
7. COOPESA
8. CREDIT KES
9. CREDIT MOJA
10. Deltech Capital Limited/Mykes loan
11. DIRECT CASH
12. FAIRKASH
13. Flashpesa
14. Flexi Cash
15. Hela Credit
16. Hikash
17. IKASH Connect
18. INSTARCASH
19. IPESA
20. KASH LOAN
21. KASHBEAN
22. KASHPLUS
23. KASHWAY
24. KESLOAN
25. LEMON KASH
26. LIONCASH/GROLA TECH LTD
27. M-CREDIT
28. METALOAN
29. MOKASH
30. PAPCASH
31. POCKET CASH
32. PREMIER CREDIT LTD
33. ROCKET PESA
34. SENTI
35. SKYPESA
36. TALA
37. WAKANDA CREDIT/KASHWAY
38. Zash loan
39. Zenka Digital Limited
40. Zuri Cas