Mobile Phone Operators in Kenya have failed us

 By Dan Muhuni

I was personally baffled when I  yesterday saw Chief Executive Officers of leading mobile operators in the country so confident that ALL their active SIM cards are registered. I just hope they read the local dailies today which proved them wrong since they were able to purchase unregistered SIM cards and indeed were able to use them to make calls.

Lets start on Monday where a press conference was held at the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK) headquarters where the government gave an arrest warning to all CEOs who will be found flaunting the SIM card regulation act.

PHOTO/ Courtesy The Standard

While addressing the media at the CCK headquarters on Monday Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo said that the security agencies wanted to establish which mobile network(s) may have been used during the terrorist attack since they have hampered their investigations into the Westgate attackers.

CCK Director General Mr Francis Wangusi persisted that there was substantiation evidence of use of unregistered SIM cards on the mobile networks and demanded that the operators deactivate them or face prosecution. Mr Wangusi added that  security agents had since Saturday been able to buy pre-activated SIM cards from operators and continued to use them a claim that has ever since been confirmed.

 

Despite ICT secretary Fred Matiang’i  warning  that top executives of Kenya’s four mobile phone operators would be arrested and charged with allowing unregistered subscribers to use their networks and for facilitating the sale of pre-activated SIM cards. These unscrupulous mobile phone operators continue to hide their head in the sand about the issue of allowing unregistered SIM cards to use their network.

If the CCK directive on the SIM card registration is anything to go by then all CEOs of the concerned companies should be languishing behind the walls of Kamiti prison since they decided to ignore a government directive issued on 20th July 2009 requiring every communications service subscriber in the country to register his or her SIM card. I don’t see the reason they should not risk going to jail after it emerged on Monday that a number of mobile companies have not complied with a directive to register mobile numbers in a move police now believe has compromised state security.

This government directive was ignored by most of the mobile phone operators in the country who decided to keep their interests of profit making and in this i pose the question “Why do we have to put profits above national interest?....Against a well informed subscriber registration that was aimed at safeguarding the public against acts of insecurity including the widespread threats posed by terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, extortion, fraud, hate messages, and incitement that are now widespread around the country.

“We have discovered that criminals are obtaining SIM cards without registration facilitated by mobile operators hence CEOs of these operators who have flouted this rule bear criminal responsibility for compromising state security,” added Matiang'i.

Unregistered SIM cards owners had prior to the September date received a 90 days reprieve by the regulator to register their lines failure to which they would be permanently de-activated.

On Monday however Matiang'i and Mr Wangusi accused mobile operators of frustrating efforts by the Government to curb crime perpetrated by mobile phones by not registering new mobile subscribers.

“Mobile operators are failing in their corporate social responsibility by continuing to keep active networks on unregistered SIM cards. They are in turn endangering the national security of the country and this cannot be tolerated,” said Wangusi.

Matiang'i said mobile operators have 48 hours to deactivate all unregistered mobile numbers.

He added that agents caught selling unregistered lines face three years imprisonment and a fine of Sh 300,000 or both.

The officials spoke even as it emerged that lack of unregistered mobile numbers has been impacting negatively on ongoing investigations into the horrific Westgate Shopping Mall terror attack which Somali militants the Al Shabaab has already claimed responsibility. Images released by police captured on closed circuit television cameras from the Al Shabaab attackers showed the captors freely communicating to people believed to be their accomplices on mobile phones.

“It complicates issues when you cannot put a face to a mobile number because it is not registered or because the subscriber is using a fake mobile handset,” a highly placed Government source involved in the Westgate investigations on condition of anonymity told the writer.