The High Court of Kenya recently delivered a significant judgment in Bolt Operations OU v The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport, the National Transport & Safety Authority, the National Assembly and the Attorney General, declaring key provisions of the National Transport and Safety Authority (Transport Network Companies, Owners, Drivers, and Passengers) Regulations, 2022 (the NTSA Regulations) unconstitutional and unlawful.
While the Court suspended the declaration of invalidity for 12 months to allow the Government to remedy the identified defects, it prohibited the enforcement of certain impugned provisions, including the 18% commission cap and dataretention and disclosure requirements, in the interim.
The decision has important implications for Kenya’s digital economy and, more broadly, for businesses operating in regulated sectors. It reinforces the principle that regulators must act within the powers conferred on them by legislation and comply with constitutional and statutory safeguards when introducing measures with significant economic and commercial consequences.
The judgment also provides important guidance on public participation, regulatory impact assessment, parliamentary oversight of delegated legislation, pricing controls, privacy and data protection.
This legal alert analyses the Court’s findings on regulatory procedure, the limits of statutory regulatory powers, pricing controls, data protection and privacy, and the implications of the Court’s remedial orders.
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Read the full publication at ALN
