Kenya is at the forefront of technological innovations in Africa and is often nicknamed Africa’s ‘’Silicon Savannah.’’
In 2018, the Pew Research Center’s global attitude survey ranked Kenya’s smartphone penetration at 30 percent, the fourth biggest in Africa after Nigeria (32 percent), Senegal (34 percent), Ghana (35 percent), and South Africa (51 percent).
The increased mobile phone connectivity in the country has left millions of users vulnerable to data breaches and privacy issues.
Various criminal cases have been reported in the country, where scammers swap sim cards to steal money from bank accounts and people impersonated.
To protect you from the vulnerability of your identification details being used to commit a crime, mobile service providers, including Safaricom and Airtel, have provided a solution for you to confirm phone numbers registered using your ID.
Follow the following steps to get started.
Dial *106# and press the SEND button. this USSD menu will allow you to:
- Check your numbers alongside the credentials used to register it.
- Report unknown numbers associated with your ID.
- Cancel any reported numbers
Today, many people in Kenya have more than one SIM card, with nearly 70 percent of the country’s population using mobile financial transaction apps regularly. This could be because of the emergence of Safaricom, the now dominant face of telecommunications in Kenya, which made its first money transfer app, M-Pesa, in 2007.