Kenyan Telcos have deactivated 287, 214 SIM cards since April this year after they were flagged over the use of wrong identification details.
The Communication Authority (CA) projects the number to increase as the October 15, 2022 deadline approaches.
Mobile users are now being urged to ensure they submit their details for formal recognition before the deadline or risk deactivation
At the beginning of the year, the CA issued new regulations, requiring individuals to register their SIM cards, in a bid to curb cases of fraud in the country.
This brought about a last-minute rush, as millions of Kenyans rushed to regularize their registration. Due to this, the Communication Authority extended this deadline to October 15, to give ample time for full registration of all sim cards in the country.
The authority says the majority of deactivated cards are a result of illegal registration and wrong documents.
In the first round of registration, 124,689 sim cards were deactivated in the first quarter of this year. This has pushed down total subscriptions from 64.9 million to the current 64.7 million according to quarterly statistics by CA.
The authority says this translates to a mobile penetration of 130.9pc. In the first half of this year, there were 59.7 million mobile devices connected to mobile networks, with feature phones and smartphones accounting for 32.9 million and 26.8 million respectively.
The authority reported a total of 92.8 million cyber threat incidences received by the National Kenya Computer Incidence Response team, with 1.9 million advisories issued on the same.
