The Kenyan government has made an announcement of a mass disconnection of mobile users whose mobile numbers have not been registered.
According to the latest scrutiny exercise, a huge number of mobile subscribers will face disconnection due to failing to register their Sim cards.
On Thursday, March 3,the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) stated that the switching off will affect those subscribers whose Sim cards were registered without giving out their photos and correct identification details.
As per the Communications Authority of Kenya, The exercise will be fully implemented by the 15th of April 2022.
According to the regulations of the CA, proper registration of Sim cards includes a photo and ID whereby in 2017,the mobile service providers were told to comply with the notice but the information seemmed to have fallen in ‘deaf’ ears.
The regulator Said, the switch off dates are set for April 15, inorder to give the telecommunication companies sufficient time to pass the information to their subscribers.
This is after they requested for extra time so that they may reach out to their subscribers to address them over the issue.
This will mostly affect those people who registered their Sim cards between the year 2002 and 2015. These ones are probably old subscribers who have failed to present their photo ID for updating.
Other users who will be affected too are those ones who own multiple Sim cards with no proper registration. This is done to enforce vigorous Sim card regulations whereby, I future they want to introduce the capturing of Biometric data.
This Sim card registration will aid the country in monitoring and keeping track of all subscribers whereby online fraud cases will be reduced.
The Communication Authority further said that, it is the upon the mobile service provider to ensure that the information provided by the subscriber is kept secure and confidential.