Kenya loses privacy war to snooping data spies

Countries where USA’s National Security Agency has been intercepting and recording phone calls. [Graphic: The Interceptor]

By Frankline Sunday

Kenya: Kenyan Internet users are slowly ceding their privacy. They are also unknowingly sharing their personal and intimate data with more than their small circle of friends and loved ones.

Unknown to many, the country is the stage of a covert cold war pitting the US against economic rival China. The prize: your data. 

Last week, reports leaked by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that Kenya is among five countries where the US intelligence agency has been intercepting, recording and archiving all phone calls for the last one year.

The surveillance is said to be part of a top-secret NSA programme code-named Mystic — which has a backdoor to Kenya’s cellular telephone network, enabling it collect metadata on Kenyans’ phone usage for up to 30 days.

Metadata, which loosely translates to data about data, in this case refers to information revealing the time, source, and destination of all phone calls made in the country.

Spy operation

By analysing this metadata, authorities can develop patterns based on a subject’s daily movements, location and associates for up to a month.

“The spy operation in Kenya is ‘sponsored’ by the CIA, which collects GSM metadata with the potential for content at a later date,” states the leaked report.

The argument that has been advanced by security analysts is that Kenya, which is the only country in Africa where surveillance of this magnitude is being carried out, is of significant interest to the US.

“It is believed the focus of the local operation is to intercept phone communication relating to terror since the US works closely with local security forces in combating the militant fundamentalist group al Shabaab, based in neighbouring Somalia,” the report states.

A fortnight ago, the US and UK issued travel advisories to their citizens to leave Kenya, and proceeded to evacuate tourists who were in the country over what was termed as credible information on an imminent terror threat.

But Kenya is not sitting idly by as Western agencies tap into its citizens’ information.

A fortnight ago, the Government revealed that Safaricom, the country’s biggest telco had won a tender to build a sophisticated security communications and information-sharing system at a cost of Sh14.9 billion.

The state-of-the-art security system will include a labyrinth of high-definition spy cameras, which will be networked to a command station fitted with facial recognition systems for isolation and tracking of wanted suspects.

Go live

The system which is being installed to help curb the recent spate of terrorism threats and activities will go live in Nairobi by the end of this year, and in Mombasa in 18 to 24 months.

A similar system of surveillance used by the US and UK drastically aided in investigations into last year’s Boston Marathon and the July 7, 2005 train bombings, respectively.

However, the key cause for alarm locally has been the involvement of China through Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which sources close to the matter claim is the main muscle behind the proposed security system.

A tender award of a similar system has seen Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE lock horns in the country’s High Court for years, each accusing the other of flouting tender rules.

Huawei is the lead vendor for Safaricom, providing up to 60 per cent of core network equipment and infrastructure. These include the anticipated long-term evolution (LTE) network, expected to be rolled out in tandem with the new security system.

Largest network

With $38.6 billion (Sh3.3 trillion) in annual revenues, Huawei is the world’s second-largest network equipment supplier and third-largest smartphone maker, with a product portfolio that includes wireless routers and fiber optic cables.

The company has, however, been accused by US authorities of creating backdoors in its equipment that allow Chinese state-sponsored hacking into commercial and military interests of the Western world.

If the allegations by Mr Snowden are true, Kenya could be stuck between a rock and a hard place with the country’s data — from high-level security communication to intimate phone calls between cheating spouses — on sale to the highest bidder.

In this regard, Kenya is not being watched by just one Big Brother, but two.

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