Why Kenyans, Internet Players are against Information and Communications Amendment Bill 2025
- Aldai Member of Parliament Marriane Kitany proposed the Information and Communications Amendment Bill 2025
- The bill seeks to make changes to the internet service provision and usage in the country and aims to protect consumers from exploitation
- However, the new law faces opposition from Kenyans and internet sector players over what they term infringement of data privacy rights
- Cybercrime expert Ben Roberts explained to TUKO.co.ke that there is no need for the bill as most of the provisions are already catered for by the regulator
CHECK OUT: How to Start Earning with Copywriting in Just 7 Days – Even if You’re a Complete Beginner
Wycliffe Musalia has over six years of experience in financial, business, technology, climate, and health reporting, providing deep insights into Kenyan and global economic trends. He currently works as a business editor at TUKO.co.ke.
Kenyans have raised concerns over the Information and Communications Amendment Bill 2025.
Source: Facebook
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dubbed the Internet Metering Bill and sponsored by Aldai Member of Parliament Marianne Kitany, it seeks to make changes to the internet service provision and usage in the country.
Kitany said that if passed into law, the bill will protect internet service consumers from exploitation.
"This bill, the only thing that it is doing is to make sure that the ISPs, when they are selling their data bundles, do not come and give a figure and say I am going to sell you my data bundle for this much for this particular period knowing very well that you will not consume that amount of data by that particular period. This bill has come to take care of the consumer rights," Kitany assured during a show Citizen TV.
What's contained in Internet Metering Bill
The bill proposed changes to Section 27A of the principal act to have an internet service provider operate a meter billing system.
The system shall perform the following functions:
- Assign to each customer a unique and identifiable meter number;
- Monitor customer usage;
- Convert customer usage into readable details;
- Create invoices based on consumption;
- Allow for user verification of invoices.
It also requires an internet service provider licensed under the Act to submit to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), at least once in every financial year, information on the billing system, including internet meter numbers issued to subscribers.
Why Kenyans, internet players oppose Kitany's Bill
The Bill tabled in parliament on May 22, 2025, received opposition from Kenyans and internet sector players over what they term infringement of data privacy rights.
In an exclusive interview with TUKO.co.ke, Cybercrime expert and chief technology and innovation officer at Liquid Telecom, Ben Roberts, noted that most of the provisions in the Bill are already catered for by the regulator.
"Well, basically, it is not even needed to legislate. We have a regulator already. If there is a problem with unused bundles, the Communications Authority is already empowered to consult and introduce regulations to deal with market failures. To see such detail in specifying the commercial terms of selling a product, embedded into legislation, is highly irregular," Roberts noted.
Return of limited data bundles
Roberts warned that the Bill seems to outlaw the unlimited data regime based on mobile broadband services.
"We seem to have forgotten what broadband is (or never experienced it). Broadband (meaningful connectivity) is globally understood to be “unlimited” data and distinct from “mobile broadband” that is rationed by the bundle. Yet this legislation comes to push us back to the dial-up era by outlawing unlimited data," Roberts wrote on his X platform.
Increase in internet cost
Source: UGC
The expert explained to TUKO.co.ke that the new policy requirements and obligations defined in the Bill will expose Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to extra operational costs.
He warned that the extra cost could deter competition in the market and make it harder for small players.
"Due to extra cost and obligation, it will therefore push up the costs of broadband, and make it harder for small ISPs to compete," he said.
Data security issues
According to the Tech and Human Rights Manager at Amnesty International Kenya, Victor Ndede, the Bill is viewed to be limiting the right to privacy.
"Because if already someone has access to your usage data, is converting that usage data into a readable format, which has not been defined, of course, in the law, and that readable data is then sent over to the communications regulator, which is a state authority, then it creates the question of what exactly is being collected, what exactly is government being given," Ndede noted.
Ndede urged the MP to ensure that there's clarity in the Bill, how it is drafted, and defines what exactly is being collected.
"And so think about the work of journalists, whistleblowers, human rights defenders, who have to work pseudonymously or anonymously on the internet to do what they do," he noted.
Proofreading by Jackson Otukho, copy editor at TUKO.co.ke.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
