NAIROBI, Kenya, April 8 – Long lines were on Friday witnessed outside major communication service providers branches as Kenyans rushed to beat the April 15 deadline for their Sim Card registration.
According to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) , all Sim Cards have to be registered by the end of this month failure of which their owners will lose them.
A few Kenyans who spoke to Capital FM News said they were trying to register their lines to avoid suspension.
“I am re-registering my number because I don’t have the money to pay for the fine. It is better to do it now rather than incurring unnecessary costs,” said Faith as she waited to be served.
According to CA Director General Ezra Chiloba, parents who have sim-registered their kids or telecom firms that fail to abide by the registration guidelines will face a six-month jail term or be fined Sh300,000.
Some view this measure as a waste of time as they registered their cards at the time of purchase.
”I don’t see any reason to waste my time repeating something I already did some time back. The government should use the details they already have since we registered our sim cards using our National Identification cards, ‘said Kevin, a resident in Nairobi.
Some telecom firms have been issuing notices and reminders to their customers to re-register lest they be suspended.
“Dear customer, urgently visit an M-PESA Agent Dealer or SAFARICOM Shop with original ID to update your SIM registration in order to avoid disconnection,” read a message received by Patrick.
Other customers did not get to enjoy communication services from the service providers as their lines were suspended.
“Dear customer, your line has been suspended. Please visit your nearest Telkom shop with your original ID to be reactivated,” read another message received by Damaris.
Mobile network operators have been asked to speed up the data cleanup exercise as no more time will be added upon the expiry of the grace period.
