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:

APESA/Zerox Technology Company Ltd ASAPKASH/Joyot Technology limited BRANCH CASH CASH SEA COLLECTPLUS- COOPESA CREDIT KES CREDIT MOJA Deltech Capital Limited/Mykes loan DIRECT CASH FAIRKASH Flashpesa Flexi Cash Hela Credit Hikash IKASH Connect INSTARCASH IPESA KASH LOAN KASHBEAN KASHPLUS KASHWAY KESLOAN LEMON KASH LIONCASH/GROLA TECH LTD M-CREDIT METALOAN MOKASH PAPCASH POCKET CASH PREMIER CREDIT LTD ROCKET PESA SENTI SKYPESA TALA WAKANDA CREDIT/KASHWAY Zash loan Zenka Digital Limited Zuri Cas