Editor's Review

The Communications Authority of Kenya has extended the SIM card registration deadline.

The Communications Authority of Kenya has extended the SIM card registration deadline by six months.

The deadline, which was set for today, Friday 15, has been extended to October 15, 2022.

According to the Communication Authority, users who would still be unregistered at that time will be fined.

Service providers who would not have registered their customers by the new deadline will also be fined, CA said.

{Kenyans queuing to register their SIM card details.}

The new deadline comes after Ezra Chiloba, CA CEO, said that telcos would switch off users who had not registered by today, Friday 15.

"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," Chiloba said last week.

He said that the CA was determined to ensure that all users were duly registered with their operators as about 65 million SIM cards were active in Kenya. 

Meanwhile, Deputy President William Ruto on April 12 said that the registration process can wait up to December.

The DP wondered what the magic was about the deadline on Friday. He said there was enough time for the process.

“The long queues even on a simple matter of SIM cards. We want to ask our people at the CA that please we have enough time. What is this magic about Friday?” the DP posed.