Subscriber sues Safaricom for breach of rights, seeks damages worth Sh100m

The petitioner wants the court to compel Safaricom to compensate them for alleged misuse of subscribers’ private data. [Courtesy]

A  Subscriber has filed a petition in court seeking Sh100 million in compensation from Safaricom over infringement of his rights to privacy.

Through Maina and Maina advocates, Benedict Kabugi claims that the company has violated his rights to privacy and also the rights of over 11 million users and gamblers as protected in the Constitution.

“I am a Safaricom subscriber and from time to time I gamble through Sportpesa android application, using my Safaricom mobile number,” Said Kabugi.

In the petition filed a Milimani Constitutional Court, Kabugi also wants the court to temporarily stop Inspector General of Police and Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) from asking for the data from 11,500,000 estimated Safaricom subscribers confiscated in June 17, 2019 to be produced in court.

“The court should order that the collected data should only be used by the parties in this matter,” said Kabugi.

He claims that Safaricom being the leading telecommunications Network in Kenya, has a wealth of data flowing through its systems from millions of subscribers.

He also wants Safaricom to pay each 11,500,000 subscribers damages of Sh10,000,000 each for violating their rights as is in the Constitution.

“I have filed this petition under article 22(1), 22(2) (b) 22(2) (c), 258(1) (2) of the Constitution Section 4 of the consumer protection act,” he says in his petition.

The petitioner has insisted that the data received and processed by Safaricom from its subscribers is private, protected and confidential under article as provided for under the law.

According to him, the Constitution guarantees the right to privacy, right not to have information relating to their families or private life unnecessarily obtained by strangers.

“Safaricom is under a constitutional statutory mandate to ensure that the data received from its subscribers is treated in a secure and confidential manner,” he says.

He says that on May 18, he was approached by an individual, a Mr Mark, who had in his possession Safaricom data estimated at 11,500,000 Safaricom subscribers, the data which was exclusively for gamblers using Safaricom lines.

According to the said data, the 11,500,000 subscribers had used their Safaricom mobile phones to gamble on various betting platforms registered in Kenya.

The data from the individual includes all the personal information of all the subscribers who gambles countrywide in different platforms but uses Safaricom lines.

It also has all the details of betting platforms of which the 11,500,000 subscribers gambles with, the amounts of money each subscriber stakes and the location of each gambler endangering and exposing them.

The petitioner upon meeting the stranger with Safaricom data reported the matter at various police station within the country.

Kabugi said he later reported the matter at the Safaricom headquarters after police took too long to act on the matter.

Shockingly on June 6, 2019, he was arrested and taken to DCI where and was forced to write a statement on data issues.

 Kabugi said investigation progressed well, until a team from Safaricom joined the probe when he was detained at Gigiri Police Station, Nairobi County, taken to Milimani Law Courts before being charged.

His earlier cooperation with the investigating agency led to the arrest of two Safaricom employees Simon Billy Kinuthia and Brian Njoroge who were charged with demanding Sh300 million from Safaricom and interfering with the Safaricom data.

According to Kabugi, the chaging of the two ICT employees was a confirmation that the Safaricom data was accessed, messed and interfered with.