Google has reportedly let one of their own go to save face in the Mocality saga that saw the multi-million search engine company admit to using a Kenyan startups’ data illegally.

Olga Arara-Kimani, who was until Monday, the Google Kenya country manager has left Google after the Google-Mocality story erupted and the internet giant promised heads were going to roll.

Olga has been a key figure in the Google story especially within the Kenyan region and her departure leaves a void that is yet to be filled. She was once listed as one of the top 20 youngest powerful African women. Her departure comes just days after Google gave a statement via Nelson Mattos, Vice President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Read more »

Google recently publicly admitted that they did in-fact use Mocality‘s data illegally to get business. After investigations they conducted internally and an inquiry into the matter, they discovered that they indeed did have a case to answer.

The statement is attributable to Nelson Mattos, Google’s Vice-President for Product and Engineering, Europe and Emerging Markets, and can also be accessed on his Google+ profile.

See statement below:

“We’ve concluded our investigation into the serious allegations about our use of data from Mocality’s website in Kenya. We’re very sorry this happened. We’ve taken appropriate action with the people involved and made changes in our operations to ensure this doesn’t occur again.”

Please see the most recent statement shared by Google’s Nelson Mattos, Vice-President for Product and Engineering, Europe and Emerging Markets in response to the issues raised by Mocality in its blog post.

“We were mortified to learn that a team of people working on a Google project improperly used Mocality’s data and misrepresented our relationship with Mocality to encourage customers to create new websites. We’ve already unreservedly apologised to Mocality. We’re still investigating exactly how this happened, and as soon as we have all the facts, we’ll be taking the appropriate action with the people involved. “

Google were today accused of illegally using data from a Kenyan company that has a large online directory called Mocality.

“We’re aware that a company in Kenya has accused us of using some of their publicly available customer data without permission. We are investigating the matter and will have more information as soon as possible.

These are clearly very serious allegations, and we are doing everything possible to investigate them.”

Mobile Monday-KENYA Meet up will be happening at the iHub on Monday 21st of March starting at 6pm-7:30pm.

The main speaker will be Moses Kemibaro- Regional Manager- EA, Dealfish.

Moses is also an avid blogger, check out his blog on moseskemibaro‘s website.

Other speakers will be:

• Mocality- www.mocality.co.ke
• Michael Pedersen- flix.co.ke
• Hilda Moraa- M-Order social mobile ordering application

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