Kenyans with unregistered SIM will no longer be able to access card services as the regulator is set to switch off the lines as from Saturday Midnight.
The Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) has 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 deactivations.
“SIM registration is a continuous process. Operators are not going to stop the exercise because of the 15th October deadline. We expect them to continue with the process,” CA Telecoms Licensing and Compliance Assistant Director Liston Kirui said.
As of yesterday, Safaricom was leading with the number of registered clients at 38 million (91 percent) followed by Airtel at 13.4 million (48 percent) 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 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 15th October 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
The 2015 CA’s Registration of SIM Card Regulations prohibits SIM card hawking, slapping a six-month jail term, an Sh300,000, or both for those contravening the law.
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It aims to streamline SIM card registration by agents which have been a source of constant pain for telcos and regulator 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.
