By Shadrack Nyakoe
Kenya top telecommunications service providers Safaricom and Airtel have threatened ni to disconnect all users who will not have surrendered their details fresh to their authorized agents after 15th April 2022.
Long queues have been the order of the day at Safarcom and Airtel dealers in the past one week as Kenyans rush to submit their fresh details the Telco service provider.
This follows a directive by the communication authority of Kenya (CAK) which says the clean-up is aimed at combating crime as well as improving data security and accuracy.
According to the Authority, a high number of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards are unregistered, fraudulently registered or registered to multiple numbers without the owners’ consent.
The authority has emphasized that the April 15, 2022 deadline for the exercise will not be extended.
“This has been an ongoing process over the last few years, the planned switch-off follows an audit that has unearthed loopholes in adherence to SIM card registration laws by mobile network operators,” CAK explained.
An additional requirement for the network providers is to perform checks of the information submitted by a user against the two national reference databases – Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS) and PISCES (Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System).
The regulation also restricts being in possession of two SIM cards, this will see unauthorized agents and hawkers arrested.
