Kenyan police raided the Nairobi warehouse of identity and cryptocurrency protocol Worldcoin on Saturday, confiscating documents and machines, local news organizations reported Monday. According to media outlet Kahawatungu, The officers backed by multi-agency officials went to the offices along Mombasa Road armed with a search warrant and broke in Saturday before leaving with machines they believe stores data gathered by the firm. The raid was reportedly conducted under the supervision of the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, Immaculate Kassait.
The raid comes after the Ministry of the Interior suspended the project’s operations in the country last week. The Office of Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) had been in contact with Worldcoin as far back as April and had concluded that its activities comply with Kenya’s data-protection laws. However, ODPC later issued a statement saying that after a preliminary review, they found a number of legitimate regulatory concerns around the project. Authorities in the U.K., France, and Germany are also looking into the project.
Kassait said Tools for Humanity, the parent company of Worldcoin, failed to disclose its true intentions during registration. The police team took the data to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters for analysis, the reports said. Worldcoin did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment. The Worldcoin token (WLD) was unchanged over 24 hours at $2.07, data on CoinMarketCap show.