Users allowed to sue Safaricom over clients bank details access
The High Court has allowed millions of Safaricom subscribers to join a class action suit against the telecoms operator over a clause in the SIM card registration rules that allows the firm to collect bank details of mobile phone users.
Clause 3.2.1 in the data privacy statement, which subscribers filled as part of the re-registration process, states that the telecoms operator can “collect and store information including credit or debit card information, information on bank account numbers, Swift codes or other banking information”.
High Court judge Chacha Mwita allowed two senior counsels — Wilfred Nderitu and Charles Kanjama—to invite other subscribers to the class action suit through the press for Safaricom to delete the clause.
The judge directed the lawyers to publish a notice in a daily newspaper, inviting Kenyans who may wish to join the suit.
The clause appears in a 58-page document that has the terms and conditions attached to last year’s update of SIM card registrations.
The lawyers reckon that Safaricom’s dominance of the Kenyan mobile market forced subscribers to accept the clause, arguing that users had no leverage to decline inking the SIM card registration rules...