CEOs of telcos face arrest over Sim card crimes

Mobile phone operators have been implicated in violation of Sim registration rules following a crackdown prompted by the Westgate Shopping Mall terrorist attack two weeks ago.

The crackdown being carried out by Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) and security agents started on Saturday and could see chief executive officers of telcos charged in court.

“We are going to take action on the vendors and CEOs who will be liable to criminal offences committed through any unregistered Sim cards on their network,” Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo said.

If found guilty the Sim card vendors face a Sh300,000 fine or three years in imprisonment or both. The mobile operators are liable to a Sh500,000 penalty.

The four mobile operators, Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom’s Kenya Orange and Essar’s Yumobile have since March been required to take details of those buying their Sim cards and to disable all unregistered users on their networks.

“From our investigations all the four mobile operators do not confirm with the Sim card regulations and they are all culpable,” CCK director- general Francis Wangusi said.

(READ: Telcos block more than 1.2m unlisted SIM cards)

Mr Wangusi said security agents had since Saturday been able to buy pre -activated Sim cards from operators. Some of them still had unregistered users in their network.

Safaricom confirmed that it had received communication from the Criminal Investigations Department in regard to Sim card registration.

“We have received a request from the Criminal Investigations Department of the Kenya Police Service to furnish them with some information pertinent to their investigations on SIM registration and we can confirm that we are giving them our full co-operation,” said Safaricom’s Corporate Affairs director Nzioka Waita.

The crackdown comes as the government tightens security following the September 21 attack that left 73 dead, 240 injured and 39 still missing.

Mr Kimaiyo said the police want to establish which mobile network(s) might have been used for communication during the terrorist attack.

On Monday, Parliament started investigations into the attack, but the sessions were behind closed doors.

Sim card registration is aimed at enhancing national security by making it possible to trace details of subscribers engaged in criminal activities such as spreading hate speech, mobile money conmanship, extortion or demanding for ransom in kidnapping cases.

“The issue of security is not a matter that we can continue to debate about. Those found culpable, including the CEOs will be arrested and charged in court of law,” ICT secretary Fred Matiang’i said.

Statistics released by CCK Monday indicate that the number of registered Sim cards was 29.88 million at the end of September up from 25.54 million in December.

Data submitted by operators showed that Safaricom and Orange had no unregistered subscribers, while Airtel and Yumobile had 385,267 and 298,872 respectively.

Mr Wangusi, however, said the operators’ did not reflect what was happening on the ground.

“We suspect that some of the information filed by the operators is inaccurate and we are pursuing this with the concerned parties,” said Mr Wangusi.

CCK gave the operators with unregistered subscribers on their network two days to deactivate them. Once suspended, affected customers have a 90-day window within which to register.

During the suspension period they will not be able to make phone calls, send text messages, use mobile money transfer services or access data services.

In July 2009, former president Mwai Kibaki directed that all mobile SIM cards be registered but the process started a year later, mainly due to lack of legal backing.

In June 2011, then Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta proposed that identification become a legal requirement through the Finance Bill 2011.

This allowed amendment of Section 27 of the Kenya Communication Amendment Act and Gazettement of regulations requiring companies and individual subscribers - including minors - to register their Sim cards.

Organisations and small businesses have to provide telcos with their official numbers and physical location while parents register on behalf of their children.