• The Communication Authority held a consultative meeting with mobile operators and agreed on a registration exercise that would not disrupt duly registered Kenyans.
• It was agreed that a USSD code, as well as an online platform, would be availed by all mobile operators for verification of details by Kenyans.
Image: SHARON MAOMBO
Mobile operators have agreed to avail self-verification platforms for Kenyans to register their SIM Cards.
This follows days of public outcry by Kenyans after the Communications Authority’s order to have operators register all SIM Cards in compliance with the authority’s regulations.
In a press statement, the Director-General of the authority, Ezra Chiloba said that they held a consultative meeting with the mobile operators taking into account feedback from the public.
“We agreed on a number of actions that will facilitate compliance without disrupting duly registered subscribers,” he said.
Chiloba said that all operators will have to provide a self-verification USSD code and online platform with standardised menus and messages.
“The USSD code *106# shall be used by all operators for verification. This means that subscribers do not have to physically present themselves at the operators' customer service centres unless it is necessary,” he said.
He also said that the regulations do not require subscribers to submit photos of themselves during registration or verification exercises, as operators had earlier been doing.
He asked that they focus on minimum requirements including identification documents such as National Identification Cards, service cards for disciplined forces, passports, and birth certificates, whichever is applicable.
Chiloba said that this was not a new regulation but one gazetted in August 2015 under the Kenya Information and Communications Regulation, also known as Regulation of SIM cards.
He said that the exercise is not a re-registration but an opportunity for operators and their customers to validate respective details of registration.
“The exercise will address the documentation gaps that have become commonplace,” he said.
In 2021, the authority carried out inspection exercises on SIM card registration across 22 counties as part of enforcing the regulations.
Chiloba said that they found SIM cards being sold without registration, using the wrong documentation and no verification was done.
“Customers were advised to register later, after buying the SIM cards, other documents such as NSSF cards and student IDs were used to purchase the cards, while some cards were given for free, using fictitious card numbers, therefore not resulting in registration but the sale of the line,” he said.
The requirement to update subscriber registration details, Chiloba said, is being done to protect customers of telecommunications services from incidences such as sim-boxing, financial fraud, kidnapping, terrorism, and related crimes that prevail in cases of compromised SIM registration processes.
He said that operators and subscribers must cooperate to ensure full compliance with legal requirements of registration by April 15, when the exercise will be closed.
He assured that the authority is committed to ensuring that the integrity of registration details of all SIM card subscribers is maintained.
“We are very sensitive to the impact of misinformation, especially around the electioneering period"
"We have already seen how facts around this exercise have been misrepresented. While it does not surprise us, I wish to encourage the media and the public to be vigilant on facts as we go through this exercise,” he concluded.