78 Kenyan Case Law 25. Participation in the collection of personal information and data in National Integrated Information Management System (NIIMS) was not compulsory Nubian Rights Forum & 2 others v Attorney General & 6 others Consolidated Petitions No. 56, 58 & 59 of 2019 High Court at Nairobi P Nyamweya, M Ngugi, W Korir, JJ April 1, 2019 Summary of Facts On November 20, 2018 the National Assembly voted in favour of the enactment into law of the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment) Act No. 18 of 2018 (the Act). The Act commenced operation on January 18, 2019. The effect of the Act was inter-alia, to amend several provisions of a number of statutes, among them the Registration of Persons Act. The amendments to the Registration of Persons Act established a National Integrated Information Management System (NIIMS) that was intended to be a single repository of personal information of all Kenyans as well as foreigners resident in Kenya, introduced new definitions of biometric and global positioning systems coordinates, among others. The petitioners, aggrieved with the amendments filed various petitions in the Court. Simultaneously with the petitions, they also filed applications for various conservatory orders. The 1st petitioner’s application was dated February 14, 2019 whereas both the 2nd and 3rd petitioners’ applications were dated February 18, 2019. They sought to suspend the amendments arguing, among others, that the impugned amendments were unconstitutional because the correct procedure for amendment was not followed; that there was no public participation and that the amendments threatened violations of their rights and of the public and especially as regards the right to privacy, in light of the nature of personal information that would be collected in the NIIMS and the lack of any security in the manner of storage of and access to the collected data. The respondents on the other hand argued that the amendments were minor and as such the proper procedure was used; that there was sufficient public participation; made an undertaking that they would not be collecting personal information on Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) and on the Global Positioning System (GPS) co-ordinates; conceded that a Data Protection Bill was in the process of being finalised, but stated that there were laws in existence to provide security of data. CITIZENSHIP AND NATIONALITY RIGHTS CASE DIGEST