As Kenyans rush to meet the April 15 deadline, long lines have been witnessed in a number of Sim Card registration centers across the country.
With barely seven days left to the switching off of unregistered Sim Card lines, thousands of Kenyans are scrambling to beat the deadline which was set by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to register their SIM cards or have them switched off.
The CA directed that anyone who fails to register their SIM cards for Safaricom, Telcom and Airtel risks having their lines being deactivated indefinitely.
According to CA Director General Ezra Chiloba, the registration drive is geared towards enforcing the Kenya Information and Communications Regulations of 2015 and is also aimed at improving data accuracy, enhancing cybersecurity, and stepping up the fight against money laundering.
According to CA records, the majority of unregistered cards were detected among the elderly who bought their phones before the ban went into effect in 2015, when the restriction was ineffective.
CA has urged mobile network operators to speed up the exercise as no more time will be added.
The initiative, which will not be prolonged, comes after CA’s attempts in 2012 and 2018 to clean up the data of telecommunication service providers.
As a condition of registration, natural persons must consent to their pictures being taken, processed, and stored.
They must also sign and disclose whether they have other lines registered to them, otherwise their unregistered cards will be turned off.
