NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 12 — A Women Pastoralist Parliamentary Group with membership drawn from the North Eastern region is now calling on the government to extend the deadline to disconnect all unregistered telephone lines by October 15.
Speaking to news reported on Wednesday, the legislators appealed to the Communication Authority (CA) to extend the deadline given that many drought-stricken families in the region depend on the phone numbers to receive cash transfers.
Led by Marsabit Woman Representative Naomi Waqo, the leaders pointed out that pastoralists in the remote areas we unable to travel to town centers to update their SIM registration status as required by CA.
“Disconnecting these phone lines by 15th October 2022 is very insensitive to the situation of the plight of poor families in this country. We request that this deadline is relaxed until drought situation is over,” Waqo stated.
She mentioned that rains had failed last four consecutive seasons with the drought situation having reached the tipping point.
The Marsabit Woman Representative lamented that nothing substantive has been done by the national and county government and other actors in addressing the situation.
An estimated 4.1 million people largely pastoralists in Northern Kenya are facing starvation triggered acute food and water shortages.
“We do not want to see pictures of people, livestock and wildlife dying because there is no water in the 21st Century. We must fix our priorities,” Waqo stated.
Garrisa Women Representative Udgoon Siyad pointed out that the deadline should be extended given that proper sensitization has not been facilitated for pastoralist communities who are mostly nomadic.
“We appeal to Safaricom to wait till the drought is over and where I come from most people are not educated, they can’t even read messages. Let the Communication Authority give our people more time,” said Siyad.
On October 7, the country’s leading telecommunications firm Safaricom advised customers who had not updated their SIM registration details to do so before October 15.
The advisory was in line with an earlier extension from an initial CA deadline of April 14.
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