Kenya’s DPA Execution Plan with TurtleShield

The Data Protection Act, 2019 (DPA) of Kenya is a landmark legislation that sets the foundation for the lawful processing and protection of personal data. With increasing enforcement from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC), organizations must align their privacy operations with the legal mandates of the DPA.

This blog outlines a structured execution plan based on key sections of the Act to help your organization operationalize compliance, manage risk, and demonstrate accountability.

1. Conduct Risk Assessments (DPIA, TIA)

Why it matters: Risk assessments help identify privacy risks across business processes, third-party engagements, and cross-border data flows.

Action:

Perform Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA), and Transfer Impact Assessments (TIA).
Map applications and workflows handling Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
Assess whether the data transfers outside Kenya meet the DPA’s legal requirements.

Legal Reference: Section 24, 31 and 48

Ardent Solution: The TurtleShield PA (Privacy Automation) automates and streamlines privacy-related processes and tasks. Conducting DPIAs and TIAs enhances privacy practices, ensures Kenya's DPA compliance with applicable privacy laws, and also protects sensitive information.

2. Discover PII and Build a Data Bill of Materials (DBoM)

Why it matters: Without knowing what personal data you hold and where it resides, effective compliance is not possible.

Action:

Conduct automated data discovery to locate structured and unstructured PII.
Create and maintain a Data Bill of Materials (DBoM) and Record of Processing Activities (RoPA).
Schedule periodic audits and reviews to verify data classification and lifecycle management.

Legal Reference: Section 57

Ardent Solution: Our Innovative and patented technology "TurtleShield DD (Data Discovery)" addresses these challenges by discovering hard-to-find datasets at scale, enabling quick actions, and reducing compliance costs. It locates and categorizes data based on regulatory requirements in PDPL, ensuring companies maintain compliance, secure sensitive information, and minimize data breach risks.

3. Implement Data Subject Rights Management

Why it matters: Data Subjects have legally enforceable rights under the DPA. Organizations must be able to honor and document these requests.

Action:

Set up a centralized portal for Data Subjects to submit access, correction, objection, and deletion requests.
Enable privacy teams to take actions via data discovery tools for timely fulfillment.
Build response workflows to close requests within statutory timeframes.

Legal Reference: Section 26

Ardent Solution: TurtleShield DSAR streamlines the Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) process, ensuring efficient compliance with PDPL. It offers a centralized portal for intake, automated data discovery, and secure response delivery.

4. Establish Centralised Consent Management

Why it matters: Consent must be informed, specific, and revocable. A manual or fragmented approach leads to compliance gaps.

Action:

Deploy a centralized consent management platform to collect, verify, store, and manage consent preferences.
Implement privacy notice management to ensure transparency.
Track and honor opt-in/opt-out signals across marketing, analytics, and third-party integrations.

Legal Reference: Sections 25, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39 and 45

Ardent Solution: TurtleShield CM (Consent Management) automates required user privacy notices, the gathering and management of consent/opt-out privacy preferences, and the operational honoring of preferences by both internal and downstream third-party data sharers.

5. Enforce Storage Limitation and Data Minimization

Why it matters: Retaining data longer than necessary increases risk and violates storage limitation principles.

Action:

Define and automate data retention policies.
Anonymize or delete personal data when it is no longer needed.
Use data minimization modules to reduce exposure and maintain lean datasets.

Legal Reference: Section 39

Ardent Solution: TurtleShield DM (Data Minimization) helps you reduce the data and focus on enterprise-centric data. It can provide you detailed insights to get rid of non-essential data, reducing cost of security and storage and building confidence of business owners and data custodians.

6. Implement Data Breach Management and Notification

Why it matters: Quick detection and reporting of breaches are critical for regulatory compliance and public trust.

Action:

Automate internal breach detection, classification, and escalation.
Set up workflows to notify the Data Controller, Data Commissioner, and affected Data Subjects within legal timelines.
Maintain an incident response log and follow-up communication for phased reporting if needed.

Ardent Solution: TurtleShield DBM (Data Breach Management) module helps organizations efficiently verify, assess, contain, manage and respond to data breaches including notifying affected individuals and regulatory bodies as per the legal requirements. TurtleShield DBM streamlines data breach management process, handles stakeholder management, accelerates breach response, enabling organizations to notify regulators and stakeholders within the required timeframe.

Notification Timelines Under Section 43:

Processor → Controller: Within 48 hours
Controller → Commissioner: Within 72 hours
National Security Risk: Immediate notification
Data Subjects: As soon as reasonably practical
Breach Details: Without undue delay
Subject Rights Response: Within 6 working days

Final Thoughts

Kenya’s Data Protection Act is not just a regulatory mandate, it’s a call for organizations to embed privacy into their operations. By following this six-step execution plan, businesses can move from reactive compliance to proactive data governance.

As digital transformation accelerates across Kenya and the broader African continent, organizations face increasing pressure to manage personal data transparently, securely, and ethically.

However, achieving and maintaining compliance is not a one-time project, it is a continuous, organization-wide commitment. From conducting risk assessments to implementing consent mechanisms and responding to data breaches, the operational complexity of DPA compliance requires automation, visibility, and accountability across all departments handling personal data.

How can Ardent Privacy help?

Ardent Privacy offers an AI-powered privacy compliance platform designed to help organizations operationalize the DPA with speed and efficiency. Our solution automates data discovery and classification, enables centralized consent and DSAR management, performs real-time risk assessments (PIA/DPIA/TIA), and enforces storage limitation policies. With built-in workflows for breach notification and data subject rights, Ardent ensures that your privacy team can meet Kenya’s DPA requirements with confidence and scale.

At a time when regulators are increasing scrutiny and consumers are demanding transparency, now is the moment to act.