From the Editor:

CIPIT held its biennial moot on 11th and 12th of October 2018. In total there were 13 teams in attendance, with about half of the teams hailing from Uganda. In the coming weeks, the CIPIT team will provide a full play by play account of events. Before that however, we would like to acknowledge one of the teams that participated.

The University of Nairobi Team comprising of the Kanyangi twins (so any confusion in the above image is regretted but understandable) and Jackline Sang wrote to us, grateful for the wonderful experience they had during the moot. Truth be told, it is the CIPIT team that is in gratitude for their attendance and their thoughtful letter. Here is their account of the moot, viva voce…

“It was a great privilege to participate in the recently concluded CIPIT 2018 moot competition. From the very onset it was exciting to engage with teams from universities around the country and Uganda. The moot concerned the right to privacy and data protection. Of specific emphasis was the disclosure of health data to third parties and the use of such information to peddle advertisements on the accounts of Wika virus victims.

The rounds on the first day were quite nerve-racking. The questions led us to conduct impromptu research. Despite the tension, the organizers were very courteous and extremely diligent. We could see how much work they had put into organizing the moot. They were instrumental in helping us locate our court-rooms and leading us to where we would be taking our meals.

The initial address by the Dean, Luis Franceschi was delightful. He looked very easygoing and friendly as he interacted with the organizers and students. He is also a good storyteller. This, for us, was very impressive.

Our first round was against a Ugandan Team (which went on to win!) We were the applicants, so the anxiety was real. The bench of judges was a pretty hot one, with questions being flown to and fro. We tried to answer as tactfully as we could and the judges were pretty impressed. The respondents were quite strong. They put up a good fight whilst putting down our arguments and discrediting our assertions. Their vigorous and powerful presentation was extremely captivating and thought provoking. Nevertheless, our rebuttals seemed to have been good enough. We found out via the preliminary results that we had won that round!

Every other team we encountered was strong too. Others even came dressed in advocates’ robes! We knew that we had to put our best foot forward, which we did. Despite the fierce competition, there was excellent camaraderie among the mooters. It was not uncommon for jokes and anecdotes to be shared over lunch. The meals were very delicious! They proved to be a great comfort after our very tough rounds. Aside from food and drink, the facilities at the Strathmore Law School were excellent. The Wi-Fi network assisted us so much in getting more information on the subject we were handling.

Unfortunately, we didn’t proceed to the semifinals (win some, lose some) but we managed to apply ourselves to a subject we have never mooted on. Matters on ICT Law are rare in moot circles. We were glad to have learnt more on data protection and verily realized that data on health should not be shared to third parties as this would constitute a breach to the right to privacy and is generally an unethical practice. In the end, the final ceremony was not long and strenuous. We each got a certificate of participation which was very kind of the organizers.

We always think that moot is a mentally excruciating exercise (it is!) but after four years in Law School, we have come to learn out of all the experiences we had. We are just grateful that we got this opportunity from the 2018 CIPIT Moot Competition. Who would have ever thought that data protection was such a big ‘legal’ deal!

Now we know that it surely is!”