Unregistered SIM cards to be blocked in January
Unregistered SIM cards will be deactivated in January when the Cabinet is expected to approve legislation that backs the process, according to Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo.
The government was unable to deactivate unregistered lines after the expiry of the September deadline due to lack of a law to legalise the action.
“We have finalised the legislative framework and expect that by end of January, we should be able to enforce it,” said Dr Ndemo.
This means that mobile subscribers who did not register as well as new ones who bought Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards after the expiry of the registration deadline will have to register or will be disabled.
The delay had put the government’s plans to safeguard the public against widespread threats posed by terrorists, drug traffickers, money launderers, extortionists, fraudsters, and inciters in jeopardy, as criminals got a reprieve to carry on with their activities.
The legislation is expected to force mobile service operators to set up and maintain a database containing their subscribers, a move that will capture personal details of the existing 20 million customers.
Phone registration regulations in other countries make it an offence for service providers to sell SIM cards without recording the buyer’s personal details.
The SIM card registration exercise started on June 21 and applies to customers buying the cards for the first time as well as those acquiring additional lines.
Proponents of the initiative also hope it will help deter other types of mobile phone-related crimes including handset theft, threats, and hate messages, which have increased in recent years.
However, opponents of the move are concerned about the implications for data protection and privacy.
In addition, there is the question of the usefulness of the information collected in preventing crime if it is not updated.
To register SIM cards, subscribers are required to give their full names, physical and postal addresses, date of birth and physical address.
But some of these particulars like physical addresses can change and also the country lacks a formal addressing system.
Borderless services
Mobile phone service providers who want to extend their borderless services to countries that have no laws requiring registration may find this a snag.
Already, Yu last week partnered with Uganda-based Telecom Warid and expressed similar intentions of expansion into Tanzania and Congo in a bid to extend its footprint in the region.
By implementing the directive, Kenya will join other countries that already have or are contemplating SIM card registers.
They include Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana. Others are Germany, Italy, the UK, Australia, India, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Turkey, Pakistan and Slovenia.
This comes after mobile service providers went out of their way to ensure that most of their loyal customers get registered only for the government to lag behind in providing legal backing.
The directive pushed operators to mount spirited registration campaigns across the country with Airtel setting up registration centres around high-traffic areas, including market centres, schools, health centres and churches to complement its existing network of Airtel shops and Zap agents.
Safaricom resorted to sending SMSes asking subscribers to send free additional details to complete their registration.
Essar’s Yu partnered with Co-operative Bank and I&M Bank to register customers at their branches as well as at G4S locations to boost its national footprint.
The registration exercise also spells trouble for the operators, who fear that consumers who own multiple lines would be reluctant to endure several registration exercises.
Before the deadline was extended, 12.42 million mobile subscribers had registered, representing 61.6 per cent of the total 20.8 million mobile phone users in Kenya.
Preliminary results
Available preliminary results from operators indicate that Safaricom had registered 13.8 million subscribers by September out of its client base of 16.24 million (85 per cent), while Airtel registered 1.96 million out of its 2.8 million subscribers (70 per cent).
Essar said it had registered over 600,000, representing 40 per cent of its total subscriber base of 1.5 million, while Telkom Kenya had 386,000 out of a subscriber base of 552,294, representing 0 per cent registration.
