NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 15 — Kenyans have thronged mobile service provider shops in Nairobi in a last minute bid to get their sim card registration details updated hours to the October 15 deadline.
A spot check at various Safaricom Shops in Nairobi’s Central Business District revealed winding queues as hundreds worked to beat the deadline.
A number of Kenyans who spoke to Capital News complained of technical challenges with the online registration process forcing them to avail themselves physically at the shops.
“I have registered one of my lines online and received a confirmation message telling me the process is complete. However, attempts to register my second line have been unsuccessful. That’s why I am here,” one subscriber said.
However, others in the classical pattern of doing things at the last minute confessed that they did not take the initial warning about switching off of unregistered SIM cards seriously.
“I received messages telling me to get my details updated but I did not take them seriously. I decided to wait until the last minute to come and register, ” another subscriber said.
A number of Kenyans also complained of technical hitches with the devises ostensibly locking them out of the online registration process.
As at October 13, data from the Communications Authority (CA) revealed that Safaricom led in compliance with the registration at 91 per cent of its subscribers.
Airtel Kenya had 78 per cent of its subscribers validated while the registration rate for Telkom Kenya was reported at 40 per cent.
CA warned that the SIM update deadline will not be extended.
