By Judith Gicobi
Following the expiration of the deadline for SIM registration on October 15, 2022, thousands of Kenyans’ cell phone services have been discontinued.
Leading telecom provider Safaricom issued messages to the impacted customers requesting that they go to its mobile shops to have the blocked connections restored.
“Dear customer, your line has been suspended pending registration update. Visit the nearest M-Pesa or Safaricom shop to update your ID,” In a message to one of its customers, the business stated.
“I received the suspension message this morning (Sunday, October 16). I can’t transact on M-Pesa, access data bundles or send messages. However, someone can call me and the call will go through,” a local of Nairobi, spoke with a local daily on Sunday morning.
Telkom and Airtel customers were also impacted.
The deadline for SIM registration was established at October 15, 2022 by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).
The government will now be able to sift out fraudsters and criminals who use unregistered cell phone lines to do harm, states the CA.
The agency explained on Friday, October 14, stating that registration is a continuous process and cannot be constrained to a set date, and that users whose cell phone lines would be terminated after the deadline to register would still be permitted to revive them in later days.
