Last updated: 25 July 2026

Who we are

African Ledger is a publication on African economic development based in Nairobi, Kenya. Our website is africanledger.org and you can reach us at info@africanledger.org. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, who else sees it, and what you can require us to do about it. It is written to reflect the Kenyan Data Protection Act, 2019, and, because some of our readership sits outside Kenya, the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation where those apply to you. We collect very little. You can read everything on this site without giving us anything at all.

What we collect, and when

If you subscribe to the newsletter

We collect your email address. Nothing else is required. Subscriptions are processed by Buttondown, our newsletter provider, which stores your address, records whether you opened an email, and logs unsubscribes. Buttondown is based in the United States, so your address is stored outside Kenya. Our lawful basis is your consent, given when you submit the form. You can withdraw it at any time using the unsubscribe link at the foot of every email, or by writing to info@africanledger.org. Unsubscribing removes your address from our list.

If you leave a comment

We collect your name, email address, the comment itself, your IP address and your browser's user-agent string. These are stored by WordPress on our host. Your name and comment are published. Your email address and IP address are not published but are visible to the editor. We keep comments indefinitely so that replies and follow-up discussion remain intelligible, but if you ask us to delete yours, we will. WordPress may send a hashed version of your email address to the Gravatar service to display an avatar beside your comment.

If you use the contact form

We collect whatever you choose to put in it, which at minimum includes an email address so we can reply. Messages are delivered to info@africanledger.org through our transactional email provider. We keep enquiries for as long as we need to deal with them and for a reasonable period afterwards in case the matter resumes, then delete them.

If you are simply reading

If you accept analytical cookies, Google Analytics, installed through Google Site Kit, records which pages you viewed, an approximate location derived from your IP address, your device and browser type, and the site that referred you. We use this to understand which entries are being read and from where. We do not use it to try to identify individual readers, and we do not attempt to build a profile of you. Google may transfer and store this data on servers outside Kenya, including in the United States. Separately, and regardless of your cookie choices, our web host keeps ordinary server logs, IP address, timestamp, and the page requested, for security monitoring and troubleshooting. These are retained for a limited period and are not used for analytics.

Cookies

Our consent tool groups cookies into categories, and you choose which to allow:

• Necessary — always active. These keep the site functioning and remember your cookie preferences. They do not identify you.
• Functional — optional. Used by embedded third-party features where present.
• Analytical — optional. Google Analytics, as described above. Decline these and no analytics cookies are set.
• Advertising — we do not carry advertising and do not set advertising cookies.

You can change or withdraw your choices at any time using the cookie preferences icon on any page.

Who else sees your data

We use a small number of third parties, each for a single purpose:

• Buttondown — newsletter storage and delivery (United States)
• Google — audience measurement via Site Kit and Analytics (United States and other locations)
• Our web host — hosting the site and retaining server logs
• Our transactional email provider — delivering contact-form messages and comment notifications

We do not sell personal data. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers, or anyone else for their own purposes.

Transfers outside Kenya

Several of the providers above are located outside Kenya. Where your data is transferred, we rely on those providers' own transfer safeguards and contractual commitments. If you would prefer that your data not leave Kenya, you can read everything on this site without subscribing and while declining analytical cookies.

Your rights

Under the Data Protection Act, 2019, you have the right to be informed of how your data is used, to access it, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have your data deleted, to object to processing, to restrict processing, and to receive your data in a portable form. If the GDPR applies to you, you have equivalent rights. We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling, so no rights in relation to those arise. To exercise any of these rights, write to info@africanledger.org. We will respond within 30 days. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting on a request, so that we are not disclosing or deleting someone else's data on the strength of an email.

Complaints

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your data or your request, you can complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in Kenya. If you are in the EU or UK, you may instead complain to your local supervisory authority.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS, access to the administration area is restricted, and we keep the platform and its components updated. No system is perfectly secure, and we do not claim otherwise, which is part of why we collect as little as we do.

Children

This publication is written for trade practitioners, policymakers and scholars. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. Where a change materially affects how we handle your data, we will say so in the newsletter rather than leaving you to notice.

Contact

African Ledger Nairobi, Kenya info@africanledger.org