Thousands of cell phone lines were turned off after the SIM registration deadline of October 15, 2022, passed.
Safaricom, a leading telecom provider, sent messages to affected customers requesting that they visit one of its mobile shops to have the blocked connections unblocked.
“Dear customer, your line has been suspended pending a registration update. Visit the nearest M-Pesa or Safaricom shop to update your ID,” the company said in a message to one of its clients.
Airtel and Telkom customers were also affected.
According to the CA, the move will allow the government to weed out fraudsters and criminals who use illegal cell phone connections to commit crimes.
Customers whose cell phone lines were blocked after the registration deadline would be able to reactivate them later, the agency confirmed on Friday, October 14.
According to the agency, registration is a continuous process that cannot be limited to a specific date.
“Operators are not going to stop the exercise because of the October 15, deadline. We expect them to continue with the process,” said CA’s Telecoms Licensing and Compliance Assistant Director Liston Kirui.
The Communications Authority of Kenya had previously set the deadline for SIM card registration as April 15, but has since revised it to October 15.
According to data obtained from telecommunications operators as of Thursday, nearly 53.2 million SIM cards had been properly registered, leaving a balance of 11.5 million SIM cards out of the total mobile (SIM) subscriptions of 64.7 million.
As of Thursday’s business close, Safaricom’s leading telecom service provider had 38 million properly registered lines, or 91% of its lines registered.
Telkom had the lowest compliance percentage, at 40% or 1.8 million SIM cards, while Airtel had 13.4 million properly registered SIM cards, representing a rate of 78% compliance.
The CA reported in June of this year that more than 124,000 SIM cards had been cancelled in an effort to stop illegally registered lines in Kenya.
