Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji has supported the ongoing registration of SIM cards claiming that criminal organisations use unregistered SIM cards to commit crimes.
Speaking during an interview at KTN News on Wednesday, Haji gave Dusit D2 terror attack that took place in January 2019 as an example.
Haji explained that the militia group exploited the weak link in the country's telecommunication landscape to plan and carry out the attack.
He noted that one of the terror suspects was found in possession of over over 30 unregistered sim cards.
"These SIM cards were being used to make different transactions to facilitate the terror operation," he said.
Continually, he said registration of these cards is important because in Kenya, we have mobile financial applications and some of them are actually exploited by terrorists to harm Kenyans.
Haji explained the connection between unregistered SIM cards and the criminal activities in the country, saying that gangs acquire numerous SIM cards, then bypass the registration exercise and conspire with some telcos to make money transactions.
"If we were to look at the Dusit D2 attack, the terrorists relied on money transfer services and some of the loopholes that were there."
Haji noted that telcos in the country made a deal with the Communication Authority of Kenya to seal the loopholes that were being exploited by criminals.
Among the measures introduced is the enforcement of the SIM card registration exercise which is currently ongoing countrywide.
The deadline for the exercise was set for April 16 even as many Kenyans remained hesitant to register their SIM cards following the CA directive.
