Phone users face huge fines under new, tough regulations

Mobile phone users who give false information when registering their Sim cards will be fined KSh100,000 or be jailed for six months in new regulations to curb phone crimes. PHOTO | FILE 

By Muthoki Mumo,The Citizen Correspondent

 Thursday, January 16  2014 at  10:22

IN SUMMARY

• Contravening the new rules will lead to a fine not exceeding KSh5 million for mobile phone companies

Nairobi. Mobile phone users who give false information when registering their Sim cards will be fined KSh100,000 or be jailed for six months in new regulations to curb phone crimes.

Contravening the new rules will lead to a fine not exceeding KSh5 million for mobile phone companies while agents committing offences under the regulations, will be fined KSh500,000 or a jail term of up to one year.

Persons committing other offences under the regulations will face a fine of KSh300,000.

The new rules are awaiting gazettement before they come into force.

“We have enhanced the penalties to ensure that everyone, right from the mobile firms to the agent and the subscriber, is accountable,” Mr Francis Wangusi, the director-general of the Communications Authority of Kenya said Tuesday.

The rules are designed to seal loopholes in the existing law and were endorsed by key players in the telecommunications sector. They are in line with provisions in the recently enacted Kenya Information Communication Act, 2013.

Once they come into force, they will override the January 2013 regulations which imposed a fine of KSh300,000 or a jail term of three years for telecom firms failing to comply with the law on registration of Sim cards.

The regulator has also enhanced rules on registering Sim cards by minors. For anyone below the age of 18 to get a mobile telephone line, one has to be accompanied by a legal guardian and produce a valid birth certificate.

However, their legal guardians will remain liable for all activities carried out using the Sim cards.

Upon reaching the age of majority, the teenagers will assume full responsibility for the lines. “…a licensee shall advise a minor registered as a user under this regulation to register his or her personal identification details according to regulation 5 and 6 within a period of ninety days of attainment of the age of majority,” the rules read in part.

Companies registering Sim cards will now be required to provide identification details for at least one director in addition to the certificate of incorporation or registration.

The length of time that mobile operators are required to archive the bio-data of subscribers after the deactivation of a Sim card has been increased from one to two years. Sale of phone lines has also been restricted to mobile phone firms and their licensed agents while all pre-activated lines have been banned.

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