Kenyan mobile industry criticise Kibaki’s SIM card decision
Nairobi (IT News Africa)-PRESIDENT Mwai Kibaki’s directive to register all mobile phone subscribers within six months has been sharply criticised by Kenyan service providers.
The Kenyan government gave “upsurge in crime” as the main reason for Tuesday’s announcement but services providers are blaming law enforcement as the problem not mobile phones.
Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said “The issue of subscriber registration has been over-simplified by the political class and, in itself, it is not a panacea for addressing rising incidents of crime,” he said.
President Kibaki on Tuesday said, “To guard against this tendency, I direct the CCK to put in place an elaborate data bank within six months to ensure that all SIM cards are registered,” in a speech read on his behalf by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka at a ceremony to commemorate the Communication Commission of Kenya’s 10th anniversary.
Zain Kenya CEO Rene Meza concurred with Joseph saying, “Prepaid subscribers registration is a good initiative to identify mobile users. However, it does not prevent or reduce crimes as the criminals normally manage to get hold of stolen mobile phones or fake or stolen identity cards to get their own mobile connections,” he said.
The government is, however, adamant that it will go ahead with it’s plans. Speaking in Nairobi, Information and Communication permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo said all SIM card holders will be required to furnish their particulars with their network providers before the end of the year.
“If users will not have complied with this deadline, their numbers will be disconnected from the network,” Ndemo said.
Kenya has 17.6 million mobile phone users and will join countries like South Africa and Tanzania in the registration of all sim cards.
By Brian Adero
