Nairobi — Kenyans have taken to social media platforms to lament over the deactivation of their mobile phone numbers following the expiry of the October 15 deadline for updating of sim registration details set by Communication Authority (CA).
A number of prominent personalities who have gone ‘mteja’ after they failed to comply with the CA directive include Makueni Governor Mutula Kilonzo, Nairobi-based lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, Nandi Senator Samson Charargei and Azimio La Umoja tech guru George Njoroge.
Through his Twitter account Abdullahi has vowed to abandon mobile service provider Safaricom after they switched his line despite being a loyal subscriber for decades.
“After 2 and half decades of being a loyal customer of @Safaricom_Care they unceremoniously switched off my line this Sunday. Tomorrow I will move to one of the competitors and will NEVER use their service again,” the lawyer tweeted on Sunday.
The Senior Council quiped “@Safaricom_Care sent me an SMS that my telephone line has been suspended with immediate effect. I’m sure they are not serious about this callous and illegal threat!”
Nandi Senator Aron Cherargei also complained of inconveniences caused by the switch off of his line despite “staying loyal” to the service provider for 15 years.
“After 15 years of having @SafaricomPLC lines they have decided to switch off their services today morning, inconveniencing me,” the Senator tweeted.
A number of Kenyans who spoke to Capital News on Saturday said they did not take the initial warning seriously and were waiting till the last minute to get registered.
Deactivated subscribers can however get reactivated upon updating their details.
“SIM-registration is a continuous process. Operators are not going to stop the exercise because of the 15th October deadline. We expect them to continue with the process,” CA Telecoms Licensing and Compliance Assistant Director Liston Kirui said.
Customers whose lines will have been deactivated will have a three-month window to re-register their SIM cards and reclaim the current phone numbers.
“After 15th October deadline, subscribers whose lines will have been deactivated will still have an opportunity to re-register. Of course, they will have more to do after being deactivated,” Kirui added.