NAIVASHA, Kenya, Oct 17 – Over 40million sim cards have been registered in the country as at last Saturday, October 15 when the campaign to register all mobile phone SIM cards ended, bringing to a total of 80 per cent of all the mobile line so far been registered.
Addressing the media in Naivasha on Monday on the sidelines of the annual Cyber Security Conference, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) Director General (DG) Ezra Chiloba Simiyu said the leading mobile telephony operator, Safaricom Limited has so far registered 93 per cent of the mobile phone SIM cards operating under its brand name while Airtel on its part has registered 81 per cent.
By the time of going to the press, Chiloba said he had not received clear data from the third mobile telephony operator; Telkom Kenya limited.
The Director General said he had tasked the three mobile telephony operators to give a window of up to end of next week to those who have not registered their lines to do before closing them down completely.
He at the same time cautioned wananchi to be careful with their personal documents so that they are not used by fraudsters to register mobile lines for their illegal activities. He gave an example where many Kenyans are struggling to pay digital loans which fraudsters used their illegally acquired mobile lines to obtain.
“Every line that is not registered will have to be switched off regardless of the owner and we will hold the three operators responsible for any line that will be found operating under their brand name illegally,” Chiloba said
He said it was important to have all the SIM cards registered in order to guarantee security of the users so that their lines are not used by fraudsters for their evil activities.
“We also have to organise our digital data system to help monitor the security of this data. Kenya has made tremendous digital progress in the financial sector and other sectors which need to be protected,” the Director General said.
The two- day conference brings together various stakeholders in the Cyber Security space to discuss various security challenges facing digital sector.
During the meeting, it emerged that during the last three months alone, six million threats or criminal attempts had been made on Kenya`s cyber space which is under various actors but were thwarted by the experts who monitor the space every minute and 58,000 advisories issued to various actors in the space.
“This shows how the cyber space all over the world is under threats from fraudsters and other criminals, hence the need to have it secured,” Chiloba remarked.
He said he was glad that during the August 9 elections, his organization worked with various stakeholders in the cyberspace and ensured the entire country was connected to the internet for the purpose of transmitting results and also managed to keep the space very secure during the period.
The Director General further said the Kenya Kwanza Government manifesto indicates that they want to build a digital superhighway in Kenya and added that his organization is ready to work with the Government to ensure that this is achieved.
“This will go along ay in ensuring every Kenyan and every village is connected to the internet and this will help the country to effectively partake of the international economy and ensure the country`s economic growth,” Chiloba retorted.
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