Kenyans can now breath a sigh of relief after The Communications Authority of Kenya changed tune on an earlier order directing them to register their sim cards afresh.
The Authority now says not all Kenyans need to register SIM cards afresh; Director-General Ezra Chiloba clarifies only unregistered lines to 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 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. 0707XXX836
2. 0716XXX382
The u-turn by Chiloba and his team came just two days after he issued a warning that Kenyans who do not register their sim cards afresh would be fined Ksh300,000 or imprisoned for six months.
CA Director General had set April 15 as the deadline for the re-registration of the SIM Cards.
Earlier on The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA)Â maintained that those who will not register their SIM card by the set deadline will face the consequence of being out of service.
“If you don’t do that (register) the telcos are going to switch you off. Looking at the situation across the country, the compliance rate is not good at all which means the risks are even much higher,” he said.
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.