If telcos meet the deadline for turning off SIM cards, Kenyans will have one day to register their SIM cards.
The deadline for SIM card registration had been set by Safaricom, Airtel Kenya, and Telkom for Saturday, October 15, 2022.
This follows the Communication Authority’s (CA) April 14 extension of the SIM registration deadline to October 15, 2022, to give network operators and subscribers more time to comply with the directive.
The regulator had previously set an April 15 deadline for the exercise.
Subscribers who have not registered their lines with their respective service providers by tomorrow will have their lines disconnected.
Subscribers must consent to having their photographs taken, processed, and retained as a condition of registration.
They must also sign and disclose whether they have other lines registered to them, or their unregistered cards will be turned off.
On Thursday, MPs urged CA to postpone the deactivation of all unregistered SIM cards until the current drought ended.
MPs from drought-stricken areas argued that SIM cards were the last line of defense for families who receive government cash transfers and other stipends.
According to Naomi Waqo, Marsabit Woman Representative, families will be affected if the CA and telecommunications operators turn off unregistered mobile numbers.
15 million mobile subscribers had not registered their SIM cards as of August 30, 2022.
Airtel Kenya, which has 17.04 million subscribers, was still waiting for 4.65 million customers to register their lines, with 72.7 percent having done so.
As of August 30, 2022, 80.7 percent of Safaricom’s 42.53 million subscribers had registered their SIM cards, with 8.2 million yet to do so.
Telkom Kenya had the lowest SIM card registration ratio of the three major telcos, with only 1.24 million out of its 3.42 million subscribers registered by the end of August.
