Registering of phone lines is the way to go
By PD columnist, October 18, 2022The switching off of mobile phone numbers that missed the October 15 re-registration deadline has been met with protests by those who failed to comply with the directive from the Communications Authority of Kenya.
But this also exposed the laxity that characterises public calls to action, with many Kenyans opting to register in the last minute or after their SIM cards were blocked.
Even after the authority extended the deadline by six months there were about 25 million subscribers who failed to comply and had their lines switched off.
This is despite the fact that telecommunication companies provided alternatives on where and how customers could easily update their details, including providing a link for self-registration.
It was, therefore, curios that subscribers, including prominent citizens, turned to social media to blame service providers for switching off their lines, yet they saw it coming, and the requirement to re-register is provided for in the law.
The ongoing re-registration is part of the regulator’s efforts to ensure service providers — Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya — comply with the Kenya Information and Communications Regulations (2015), whose broad aim is to curtail digital crimes and misuse of telecommunication gadgets.
These regulations require mobile phone users to provide personal identification details before one can be issued with a SIM card and is standard practice in many countries given that the use of mobile phones has a range of implications for surveillance to deter crime.
The registration is meant to reduce incidences of digital fraud and cybercrime that have been prevalent in the local telecommunications sector, which has become a major player in the financial sector. Indeed, cases of prisoners using unregistered lines to extort and defraud the public have been common and this is one of the maladies that the process is meant to curb.
Coming at a time telcos have been dealing with increasing cases of SIM card swaps and fraudulent registrations, if this is part of finding a solution to ensure that these cards are not used for crime, then the public will do well to comply for their own safety and cyber security. Only those with ulterior motive have reason to worry or oppose the process.
As such, Kenyans of goodwill ought to take the exercise seriously because it is part of a process that will safeguard their interests, which can only be guaranteed if all lines are registered.
However, even as they do this, the regulator and telcos must ensure that the data is safe to avoid confidential information in their custody being accessed and shared with other databases and third parties without express consent of the owners or outside the ambit of the law.