Access to Information Act, 2016 (No. 31 of 2016)

The Access to Information Act No. 31 of 2016 is Kenya's principal access-to-information statute, enacted to give effect to Article 35 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, which guarantees every citizen the right of access to information held by the State and to information held by another person that is required for the exercise or protection of any right or fundamental freedom. The Act was assented to on 31 August 2016 and commenced in September 2016. It is a central transparency and accountability instrument and, in an environment of increasingly digital public records, an important digital-rights enabler of the right to know. The Act confers a right of access to information held by public entities and by private bodies where the information is necessary for the exercise or protection of a right. Public entities must facilitate access and are obliged proactively to publish and disseminate important information, a duty increasingly discharged through websites, portals and other electronic channels. The Act addresses information held in electronic form and presupposes the organisation, digitisation and sound management of records; commentary and implementation reviews have repeatedly identified the non-digitisation of public records as a key obstacle to realising the right, and Kenya has developed supporting measures such as an Electronic Records and Data Management Standard and an online ATI request portal administered through the oversight body. Access is subject to timelines (as a rule, responses within 21 days) and to a set of exemptions protecting national security, personal privacy, commercial confidentiality, legal privilege and law-enforcement interests. These exemptions are tempered by a public-interest override that can compel disclosure where the public interest outweighs the harm, and the Act requires that any limitation be construed narrowly. Oversight and enforcement are entrusted to the Commission on Administrative Justice (the Office of the Ombudsman), which may receive and determine complaints, investigate, and make binding orders, and to which public entities report. The Act also provides protection for persons who disclose information in good faith. Operating alongside the Data Protection Act 2019, which gives effect to the privacy limbs of Article 31, the Access to Information Act forms one half of Kenya's constitutional information-rights architecture, balancing the right to access public information against the right to privacy in personal data, and its digital-records and proactive-publication dimensions place it squarely within the Digital Rights field.

1. 1Gives effect to Article 35 of the Constitution, conferring on every citizen the right of access to information held by the State and by other persons where required for the exercise or protection of a right.
2. 2Obliges public entities (and relevant private bodies) to facilitate access and to proactively publish and disseminate key information, increasingly through electronic and online means.
3. 3Requires the digitisation and proper management of records, and provides for access to information held in electronic form.
4. 4Sets timelines for responses (generally 21 days) and a framework of exemptions (national security, privacy, commercial confidentiality, law enforcement) subject to a public-interest override.
5. 5Designates the Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman) as the oversight and enforcement body, with power to hear complaints and issue orders.
6. 6Contains whistleblower-style protection for disclosures made in good faith under the Act.