CA Urged To Extend Sim Cards Registration Exercise

Members of parliament (MPs) from the drought-stricken areas now want the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) to postpone the deactivation of the unregistered SIM card until the prevailing drought situation is over.

“We request that this deadline be relaxed until the drought situation is over and the drought-stricken pastoralists in the remote areas are able to travel to town centers to register their phone lines,” the MPs said.

CA had given Kenyans until October 15 to register their SIM cards or face deactivation. The MPs said switching off the SIM cards will disadvantage thousands of families who are currently depending on cash transfers and other stipends from the government and donors to mitigate the effects of drought.

“We are concerned with the directive of the Communication Authority to disconnect all unregistered telephone lines by October 15, 2022, during such a difficult time,” Naomi Waqo, the Marsabit Woman Representative said.

The CA in March issued a directive requiring mobile service providers Safaricom, Airtel, and Telkom Kenya to carry out fresh registration of all their mobile telephone subscribers, in a move that was geared towards eliminating the illegally registered Sim cards which abet cyber crimes in the country and towards improving data accuracy.

The regulator urged Kenyans to register their SIM cards before April 15, before extending the deadline to october 15 to give more time to Kenyans who had not registered to complete the exercise. CA Director-General Ezra Chiloba also said that some standards were not met by then, noting the confrontation of consumer protection issues.

As of April Safaricom PLC had reported 67 percent compliance, Airtel Kenya 55 percent while Telkom Kenya recorded 33 percent compliance. CA requires Safaricom, Telkom, and Airtel to retain a copy of the identification documents of every subscriber to improve data accuracy.

Data from CA shows that telecommunication operators have deactivated a total of 411,903 SIM since the start of 2022, with 124,689 deactivated between January and March, and 287,214 between April and June.

The regulator warned consumers against blaming the authority for disconnecting their SIM cards after the lapse of the deadline.