Kenyans can now breathe a sigh of relief after the Kenya Communications Authority reversed an earlier ruling requiring them to re-register their SIM cards.
The Authority has clarified that not all Kenyans must re-register their SIM cards; Director-General Ezra Chiloba clarifies that only unregistered lines must be listed.
How to check if your Sim is Registered
To check whether your sim is registered follow these steps
- Go to your dial pad and call *106#
- Six requests will appear on your screen choose the first one check my numbers
You will receive a message from Safaricom showing all the numbers that are registered under your Identity Number.
Here is the format of the message from Safaricom.
Dear customer, numbers registered using your ID are:
1. 0706XXX797
2. 0792XXX695
Chiloba and his staff made the U-turn just two days after issuing a warning that Kenyans who do not re-register their SIM cards face a fine of Ksh300,000 or six months in prison.
The re-registration of SIM cards has a deadline of April 15 imposed by the CA Director General.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) previously stated that customers who do not register their SIM cards by the deadline will be disconnected from service.
“The telecoms will turn you off if you don’t do that (register).” Looking at the scenario across the country, the compliance rate is quite low, implying that the dangers are considerably greater,” he stated.
According to Chiloba Kenya has a total of 65 million registered SIM cards, a fact that he says must not be handled lightly considering the country has a population of about 50 million people.
“This means each and every person in this country including the newborn has a number attached to them. But we know some of us to have more than one SIM card. Some registered and others not,” he said.
