The Investigator’s Handbook: Kenya Edition

What the Kenya edition covers

1. Kenya 1. Domestic legal process: who can ask for what, and how

   This chapter shows an investigator working in Kenya which law governs each kind of request to a telephone company, internet provider or bank, who may apply for it, how long each step lasts, and what a private investigator or journalist must do instead. Kenya has one cybercrime statute with its own investigation powers, the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, and those powers sit alongside the general criminal procedure, evidence and proceeds-of-crime laws. Most of the powers need a court; the preservation notice does not.

   Sections in this chapter

   • What was read, and which text is in force
   • The map: one cybercrime law with its own powers, and the general laws beside it
   • Who may ask, and who may not
   • Preservation: freezing traffic data (section 51)
   • Production: subscriber information and specified data (section 50)
   • Search and seizure of data (sections 48 and 49)
   • Bank records
   • Real-time collection and interception: awareness only
   • Emergency requests
   • Time limits, notice and secrecy at a glance
   • If you are a foreign investigator
   • Making the records usable as evidence
   • Worked example (generic)
   • Checklist

2. Kenya 2. Internet and telecom providers: finding who holds the records

   This chapter helps an investigator in Kenya work out which company holds the subscriber, traffic or account records behind an IP address, a phone number or a domain name, what the texts say those companies must keep and for how long, and where the public sources stop. Kenya’s telecom regulator publishes a register of licensees, but the register lists names and postal addresses only, so most of the practical work is identifying the right legal entity and serving it through your normal legal-process channel.

   Sections in this chapter

   • Who regulates, and what each body tells you
   • How to identify the provider
   • What providers must keep
   • Using the Ministry’s Kenya provider directory
   • Overseas platforms that serve Kenya
   • Worked example (generic)
   • Checklist

3. Kenya 3. Banks, wallets and national reporting: money and complaints

   This chapter shows an investigator in Kenya where a fraud complaint goes, what the victim’s bank or mobile-money provider must do under the published rules, which court-based routes can freeze money, and how a complaint is escalated to the Central Bank. Many cases involve mobile money, such as a Safaricom M-PESA or Airtel Money transfer, rather than a bank transfer; in the Central Bank’s 2024 bank-fraud figures, mobile banking fraud was the largest category (see below).

   Sections in this chapter

   • National reporting: who receives what
   • Freezing or holding funds
   • The regulator and complaint ladder
   • Wallets, payment systems and the Ministry’s pages
   • Worked example (generic)
   • Checklist

4. Kenya 4. Cross-border: treaties, platform routes and what Kenyan authorities can send out

   This chapter sets out Kenya’s treaty position as of 18 October 2026, how a foreign agency gets Kenyan records or has Kenyan property frozen, what a Kenyan agency can send abroad, and how requests to the big US platforms look from Kenya. Kenya’s own law lets it assist any country, treaty or not, through the Attorney-General as Central Authority. Kenya has no mutual legal assistance treaty with the United States and is not yet a Party to the Budapest Convention.

   Sections in this chapter

   • Kenya’s treaty and agreement position
   • Incoming requests: how a foreign agency gets Kenyan records
   • Outgoing requests: what Kenyan authorities can send abroad
   • Kenyan requests to the major US platforms
   • Police and other channels (awareness)
   • Decision flow
   • Checklist

5. Kenya 5. Templates, contacts and quick reference

   This chapter gives an investigator in Kenya the national agencies we could verify, ready-to-adapt outlines for a preservation notice, a production application, an urgent request to a provider and a foreign agency’s mutual legal assistance request, and a table of who to call first by case type. The templates cite the Kenyan provisions explained in Chapters 1 to 4. They are outlines to adapt with your legal officer, not forms the law prescribes.

   Sections in this chapter

   • National agencies and contacts
   • Template 1: Preservation notice to a provider (CMCA section 51)
   • Template 2: Production application outline (CMCA section 50)
   • Template 3: Urgent request to a Kenyan provider
   • Template 4: Foreign agency request to the Central Authority
   • Template 5: Requesting a section 106B certificate
   • Who do I call first? Quick reference by case type
   • Checklist

Every edition also includes the global reference: how data requests work, the seven big platforms, the 116-service directory, country routes, cryptocurrency, evidence handling, templates and a glossary. See the full contents or try the free First 24 Hours checklist.

Related directories for Kenya

• Kenya ISP and telecom directory
• Bank fraud help in Kenya
• How police in Kenya request data from platforms
• Cybercrime agencies in Kenya
• Law-enforcement request hub (LERS)

Questions