The deadline set by Telcos to have unregistered sim cards deactivated has left most Kenyans in agony after it was implemented at midnight.
Safaricom, Airtel Kenya and Telkom had set yesterday as the deadline for SIM card registration.
High-profile politicians including Samson Cherargei, Nandi county senator are among those that have had their SIM cards deactivated.
“After 15years of having Safaricom PLC lines they have decided to switch off their services today morning inconveniencing me,” he lamented.
The senator said that the nation needs a strong rival.
Makueni county governor Mutula Kilonzo also stated that he was also a victim of the shutdown.
“I suffered the same fate. It took a while to figure out that my line had been barred,” he said.
Ahmednasir Abdullahi, a lawyer, expressed regret as well after his account was deactivated despite 25 years of continuous patronage.
“After 2 and a 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,” he said.
Fatuma Gedi, former Wajir women representative, expressed her sentiments as one of the victims affected by the shutdown.
“Same with me Safaricom kwaheri,” she said.
The SIM registration deadline was postponed by the Communication Authority (CA) on April 14 which was in place till yesterday to give network operators and subscribers additional time to comply with the mandate.
Subscribers were required to consent to having their photos taken, processed, and stored as a condition of registration and failure to comply, their unregistered cards would be turned off.
The move meant to curb misuse of SIM cards for criminal purposes, prevent online crimes, kidnapping and terrorism and other forms of cybercrime.
However, the Communication Authority of Kenya clarified that SIM registration is a continuous process despite yesterday’s deadline.