CA orders disconnection of illegal SIM cards by 23 September

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has given mobile operators until 23 September to disconnect all ‘illegal’ SIM cards – either fraudulently registered, unregistered or partly registered – on their network, Capital Business writes. The telecoms regulator’s decision follows an audit that revealed numerous instances of non-compliance with subscriber identification regulations. Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya will have to pay a fine amounting to 0.2% of their annual income if they fail to deactivate unregistered SIMs, while subscribers providing false information for identification risk a fine of USD992 or imprisonment for six months. The CA plans to undertake a further audit in three months to ascertain compliance with these directives.