Offences are public in nature and their prosecution and sentencing is carried out through the criminal justice system. Remedies on the other hand may be considered from a civil lens and examples include damages, restitution, coercive (injunctions) and declaratory remedies. They are personal and their aim is to give justice to the injured person. A trend with newer laws is the provision of both offences and remedies. In the copyright law for example, in addition to criminal offences, one can recover profits from pirated material.
Back to our bill, the following offences are created:

Offence	Penalty
Knowingly supplying false information to the data commissioner during registration as a data controller or processor ( clause 15 (3))	General penalty under clause 59: 5 million shillings fine or 5 years imprisonment or both plus possible forfeiture of equipment and prohibition order
Data controller or processor failing to notify the data commissioner about a change in particulars (clause 16 (7))	General penalty
unlawful processing of personal data (clause 27)	5 million shillings fine or 5 years imprisonment
Unlawful processing of sensitive personal data (part v)	5 million shillings fine or 5 years imprisonment
Refusing to comply with a notice from the data commissioner or knowingly furnishing the commissioner with false information during investigations (clause 52(3))	General penalty
Disclosure of personal data by controller against specified purpose (clause 58 (1))	General penalty
Disclosure of personal data by processor without authority of controller (clause 58 (2))	General penalty
Obtaining personal data without prior authority of controller or processor (clause 58 (3)(a))	General penalty
Disclosure to a third party (clause 58 (3) (b))	General penalty
Offer (advertisement) to sell personal data obtained through unlawful disclosure ((clause 58 (4))	General penalty

The bill has taken the criminal law track and has not provided remedies targeting persons injured by contravention of the bill. It does however create a complaints mechanism where the public can lodge complaints with the data commissioner. The powers of the commissioner in addressing such complaints are limited to issuing notices.(and we shall be discussing more about the office powers of the data commissioner in due course)

Our discussion today is on the question of choosing the offences route as opposed or in addition to the civil route. What are our thoughts on this? Should we have borrowed the pro-rated model of the GDPR where controllers/processors are charged administrative fines according to their revenue?

And when we come to offences, are they adequate? Should the magnitude of the offence be measured against the size of the data processor or are all sins equal despite might of the transgressor?

Listers, please share your views on these issues. As usual, we welcome identification of good and problematic clauses. Welcome to the discussion.