Kenyans Rush to Beat Sim Card Registration Deadline

Kenyans are now rushing to register their sim cards ahead of the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) deadline of April 15.

The Communication Authority of Kenya directive requires all SIM cards to be registered before April 15, failure to which they will be deactivated, in the government’s move to tame fraudulent use of SIM cards and improve data accuracy.

Long queues have been witnessed in various registration centers across the country ahead of the deadline, only nine days away. The regulator has urged mobile networks to speed up the exercise, as no more time will be added.

According to CA’s Telecom Compliance, Licensing, and standards Director Julius Lenaseiyan, the move comes after a noticeable multitude of SIM cards were sold to people by unlicensed operators and agents. Most unregistered cards have been discovered among people who bought their SIM cards before 2015, when the regulation was ineffective.

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The registration process requires telecommunications operators to keenly verify identification documents provided by users with the Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS). Citizens must present their National Identification Cards (ID) and Passports for refugees and other outsiders during the registration process.

“The SIM card regulations 2015 now stipulate that the Mobile operators, namely Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom, should re-register their subscribers by updating their details with a digital passport size photo of the customers.

“A person who intends to register a SIM card shall provide verifiable registration particulars, including a national ID for citizens and passports for refugees and other outsiders,” Lenaseiyan stated.

This is the third time in a decade the regulator is coming up with a deadline to switch off the SIM cards after a similar attempt in 2012 and 2018.

“This has been an ongoing process over the last few years, the planned switch-off follows an audit that has unearthed loopholes in adherence to SIM registration laws by mobile network operators,” the authority said.

The directive could significantly impact the operations and the bottom line of mobile service providers.

The directive will also affect people who have multiple SIM cards but have yet to register all f them with their photo IDs.