Safaricom digs in over plan to tap telephones

Leading mobile phone service provider Safaricom has explained its discomfort with the Communications Authority of Kenya’s (CA) plan to introduce a system that will see third party access phone details.

CA has said a Device Management System (DMS) it seeks to introduce is only intended to prevent counterfeit phones and stolen ones from being used.

However, Safaricom argues the fact that CA has failed to adequately address concerns it raised, can only lead to the conclusion that its subscribers are at risk of having their personal details, calls, text messages, social media messages, and data exchange being subject to interference by the installation of the said device.

AFFECT CUSTOMERS

“The effect is that our subscribers shall desist or reduce using their devices, in effect reversing the progress we have made in making communication easier for our subscribers,” Safaricom says in court papers.

Safaricom adds that CA’s move to install the device without regard to the concerns raised should not be allowed as it amounts to an arbitrary decision which shall affect its customers’ use of handsets and infringe on their right to privacy.

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CA has already awarded Broadband Communications Networks Ltd the tender to deliver, install, test, commission and maintain a device through which the project will be implemented.

COUNTERFEITS

Safaricom argues that the counterfeits CA intends to curtail are imported hence any attempt to stop the proliferation of such devices should start at the point of entry into the local market and not after the local purchase of the same by the consumers.

The mobile service provider adds that it is in line with the Constitution that CA is not allowed to implement the installation of the device until all concerns have been adequately addressed.

“It is clear that the instant petition has been filed due to the fact that CA has not involved the public to understand the purpose of the DMS,” Safaricom says in court papers.

PHONE CONVERSATIONS

The authority argues that the application filed by activist Okiya Omtatah against the installation of the device, claiming it seeks to spy on Kenyans’ private phone conversations, is alarmist and is made in ignorance of the purpose and function of the device.

CA says it should be allowed to carry out its mandate, adding that interruption of a mandate that is yet to be carried out should be avoided by the court as it would amount to the usurpation of its regulatory authority.

The case will be mentioned on September 20.