It first was a sigh of relief to millions of Kenyans when the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Sunday clarified that subscribers who have already registered their SIM cards could confirm their validation statuses by dialing *106#.
The USSD code allowed Kenyans to confirm phone numbers registered under their national identity cards. And they did not have to physically present themselves at the tele-service providers’ offices.
Most subscribers, who did so on the very Sunday, particularly Safaricom subscribers, received confirmation messages indicating the phone numbers registered using their national IDs.
But as the April 15 deadline set by the Communications Authority nears, just three days shy, Safaricom appears to have taken an about turn.
From “dear customer, the numbers registered using your ID are… to “Please visit the nearest shop or agent to resubmit their details”, the service provider now allows the customers to present themselves for a fresh entry of details.
Registration status
CA Director-General Ezra Chiloba Sunday April 10, directed all operators to standardise their menus and messages so that once a subscriber dials the USSD code it allows them to check their registration status from wherever they are.
The USSD code, he said, was to be used by all operators for verification. “This means that subscribers do not have to physically present themselves at the operator’s customer service centres unless there is an anomaly,” he said on Sunday.
He also clarified that subscribers were “not required to submit photos of themselves” during the exercise, and that the photo on a subscriber’s identity card would suffice.
Records of subscribers must include details of the national ID, service cards for disciplined forces, passports, and birth certification, whichever was applicable, Mr Chiloba said.
Identity card
Subscribers who registered their SIM cards before 2015, before the regulations were gazetted, were required to visit telecommunication agents to update their details if the *106# query did not produce a valid detail of numbers registered under a particular identity card.
Yet on Tuesday, three days shy of the deadline, Safaricom was asking their subscribers to present themselves to “resubmit their details. Contacted for comment, Mr Wachira Kangaru, Safaricom’s head of communications told the Nation: “We had a challenge. Ask the subscriber to check tomorrow. We will be updated.”
The CA had asked operators and subscribers to cooperate to ensure full compliance with legal requirements of registration, which will continue until April 15.
As of Sunday, Airtel had recorded 52 per cent compliance while Safaricom said it had validated over 65 per cent of its subscribers. BY DAILY NATION