NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 15 – Kenyans are rushing to beat the Communication Authority of Kenya’s (CA’s) SIM card registration deadline that will see unregistered lines blocked from accessing crucial mobile services from Saturday midnight.
A spot check by Capital Business revealed long queues at numerous Safaricom and Airtel retail shops ain Nairobi, with lines extending to roads.
Yesterday, CA announced that it will not extend the deadline for the fourth time after it was extended on April 15, 2022.
CA was forced to extend the registration exercise amid complaints from the members of the public, a majority of whom were yet to be registered.
Switched-off lines will no longer access crucial services such as M-Pesa or Airtel Money, send texts or make calls after deactivation.
The 2015 CA’s Registration of SIM Card Regulations prohibits SIM card hawking, slapping a six-month jail term, a Sh300,000 fine, or both for those contravening the law.
The regulations aim to streamline SIM card registration by agents which has been a source of constant pain for telcos and regulators amid an increase in cyber crimes as well as terrorism cases, among others.
Under the new regulation, mobile operators are required to update customers’ details with a digital passport-size photo of the customer and their national ID, and a passport for refugees and others.
As of Thursday, Safaricom was leading with the number of registered clients with 38 million (91 per cent) followed by Airtel at 13.4 million (48 per cent) and Telkom Kenya at 1.8 million (40 percent).
As a result, CA said that a total of 500,000 lines had been deregistered between the month of January-June 2022.
Customers whose SIM lines will have been closed will have a window period of three-months to re-register their SIMs as long as they provide ownership proofs.
“After the October 15 deadline, subscribers whose lines will have been deactivated will still have an opportunity to re-register. Of course, they will have more to do after being activated,” Kirui added.
