The government of Kenya reached out to Meta for users’ account data at unprecedented levels in 2024, newly released figures from the tech giant have revealed.
Meta — the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Threads — routinely responds to government requests for data on its users when legally required or in cases of emergencies.
The requests are handled “in accordance with applicable law and our terms of service,” the company notes on their website.
According to the latest statistics from Meta’s Transparency Centre, President William Ruto’s administration made 35 official requests for data on 55 user accounts in 2024 alone — the highest number of such requests Kenya has ever made to the company.
Between January and June 2024, Kenyan authorities filed 23 requests: 19 for legal processes and four categorized as emergency disclosures. Meta says it produced some data in response to 43.5 percent of those requests.
In the second half of the year, the government submitted 12 more requests, with nine tied to legal processes and three emergency disclosures.
This marked a sharp increase compared to previous years. In 2023, Meta recorded 15 data requests from the Kenyan government, 23 in 2022, 25 in 2021, and 33 in 2020.
On a regional scale, Uganda made two requests to Meta in 2024, while Tanzania and South Sudan made one request each. Notably, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Somalia made none during the same period.
Across Africa, Morocco led with 1,188 data requests to Meta last year — the highest on the continent.
Globally, the United States topped the list with 156,556 requests, followed by the United Kingdom with 21,684 requests over the same period.
In its report, Meta emphasized that it carefully reviews every request it receives to ensure legal sufficiency, often rejecting or seeking clarification on those considered overly broad or vague.
“Meta responds to government requests for data by applicable law and our terms of service. Every request we receive is carefully reviewed for legal sufficiency, and we may reject or require greater specificity on requests that appear overly broad or vague,” the company stated.
Meta’s Transparency Centre publishes this data in six-month increments, a practice it has maintained since 2013. The figures reflect the growing tension between privacy rights and government surveillance interests in Kenya and beyond.
The revelations also come at a time when the government has been accused of a heavy crackdown on critics, sometimes leading to death by tracking online social activists.
In recent days, Kenyans have been enraged after one online user (Albert Ojwang) was arrested in Homa Bay and then taken to Central police station in Nairobi where he was tortured and killed. His crime, accusing the police bosses of being corrupt.
During the 2024 anti-tax laws, there were also allegations that Safaricom and social media companies were sharing data on government critics with the security agencies which led to their abductions, torture, and sometimes even leading to death.
