President orders unregistered SIM cards switched off
More than three million subscribers risk being switched off if they don’t register their mobile telephone lines. President Kibaki on Thursday directed that such lines be switched off the networks to protect the public from criminals. Photo/REUTERS
More than three million subscribers risk being switched off if they don’t register their mobile telephone lines.
President Kibaki on Thursday directed that such lines be switched off the networks to protect the public from criminals.
He said the action would wipe out all unregistered mobile lines likely to be used to perpetrate crime.
Mr Kibaki was speaking when he presided over the launch of the Telkom Kenya 3G network in Nairobi. (Also read: Kenya to cut off unlisted mobiles)
In July 2009, the President directed that all mobile SIM cards be registered but the process started a year later, mainly due to lack of legal backing, with statistics from the industry regulator indicating that so far 80 per cent of the 24 million subscribers had registered by March this year.
“To safeguard the lives of many Kenyans using mobile phones, I once more direct the Ministry of Information and Communication to ensure that there is no phone number in use that is not registered,” said the President. “There is now a legal framework to protect service providers from unnecessary legal suits.”
Lack of a clear legal framework has been a major hurdle to the four mobile operators Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom’s Kenya Orange and Essar’s yu making it hard for them to switch off the unregistered numbers on their networks in fear of possible legal suits from their clients.
In June this year, the Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta proposed in his 2011/2012 Budget Speech that identification become a legal requirement through the Finance Bill 2011, in a move that the government said would make it harder for criminals to have a field day.
he proposal gives backing to the presidential directive issued, yesterday as it gives the Information minister powers to amend Section 27 of the Kenya Communication Amendment Act and thus Gazette the regulation to enforce the directive.
In his Budget speech Mr Kenyatta sought to amend President Kibaki’s directive to have all SIM cards registered.
“To this end, I propose to amend the law to make it mandatory for issues of SIM cards to ensure that the mobile firm operators will take legal responsibility in case of any misuse of the SIM cards.”
The government began registering subscribers to the four mobile networks hoping to discourage increased acts of extortion, fraud and kidnapping that have been perpetrated through mobile phones. Companies and individual subscribers - including minors -are required to register their SIM cards.
Organisations and small businesses will have to provide users with their official numbers and physical location while parents will have to register on behalf of their children.
