The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), in a bid to curb SIM card fraud, wants to amend laws concerning registration of SIM cards.
The CA put up a public notice in which they stated that suggestions from the public and other stakeholders that will help shape the process of stopping SIM card fraud and enhancing proposed guidelines will be highly welcome.
There are existing guidelines on sim card regulations on the Kenya Information and Communications Regulations, 2015, but the CA, acknowledging that cases of fraud have been on the rise, has seen the need to amend, thus enhancing them.
The CA stated that they have noted that there has been a trend where criminals steal Identification cards that are already registered and use them to commit crimes, the most common one being conning unsuspecting Kenyans of their money.
Under the new regulations, the CA wants the duration of SIM card registration to be 90 days.
The regulations further state that anyone who will have been found to have committed an offense whose penalty has not been stipulated will be charged in court and upon conviction, they will be required to pay a fine not exceeding 300,000 shillings or serve a jail term not exceeding six months.
A forensic audit also established that while all Telcos in the country are keen on gaining subscribers, their agents do not follow the right procedure in terms of confirming their customers’ identification details.
According to the audit agents and sub-agents do not request identification documents for subscribers, and on occasions that they do, they do not verify the details.
The audit report showed that it is for this reason that most of the SIM cards with non-conformity were found to have been registered using passports as a form of identification and unfamiliar identification cards.
The CA has resorted to having all agents and sub-agents that deal with sales on behalf of operators give their details, including company registration details, number of outlets and their locations of operation in a bid to ensure the success of the set regulations.
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