By Alex Owiti Safaricom mobile service provider has welcomed President Kibaki’s recent directive requiring all mobile phone subscribers to be registered as a way of combating crime. The directive comes after the recent escalating kidnappings that have been orchestrated through mobile phones. The company said it will support all efforts the government is undertaking to improve the security of citizens. Mr. Michael Joseph, Chief Executive Officer,Safaricom observed that the company will continue to proactively assist law enforcement officers in the investigation of crimes committed or planned by outlaws abusing its network as long as the approach is “legal and proper”.” Safaricom will do all it can to ensure a databank is set up to assist in the fight against crime.”

Mr. Joseph said the country needed do to curb the mobile crimes by a collective responsibility;”We need to do this as a country. Safaricom already has over half of our subscriber base registered through our M-PESA and PostPay services and the popular Bonga loyalty scheme, for which registration is a standard requirement. An enabling law will certainly give us the much-needed legal muscle to extend this to our entire network. It would map out how these records are to be used and give us the legal right to ask our subscribers for their details."

He appreciated the registration initiative saying it will also give the company the opportunity to better understand and serve its subscribers.

He further noted that while there was a compelling logic for registration of all mobile phone subscribers, there remained legal and administrative challenges that the regulators and operators needed to work together to resolve.

These included keeping subscriber information confidential as per license obligations, recording user data in outlets with no computers and ensuring those without identification papers are not disenfranchised from enjoying the benefits of mobile telephony.

Safaricom was keen on helping the government implement the new directive but this would be done within the law and without infringing on our subscribers rights, including the right to privacy, as enshrined in its license obligations.

“Registration is no panacea to our crime problems and it can never be surrogate to professional police investigations. As is stands, criminals will always steal phones and even identities of innocent people, but it is a necessary first step in helping us combat the recent upsurge of mobile-phone related crime. At the end of the day, crime is a societal problem whose conquest requires the concerted efforts of all. At Safaricom, we have always played our part and that will continue,” said Mr. Joseph.

President Kibaki gave the directive at a gala dinner hosted by Communications Commission of Kenya on 20th July 2009 as part of the regulator’s 10th anniversary celebrations. During the event, in a speech read on his behalf by VP Kalonzo Musyoka, the Ministry of Information and Communication was directed to put in place, within six months, a databank that will ensure all mobile telephone subscribers are registered.

“We are waiting for the Ministry of Information and Communication to issue specific modalities on how the directive will be implemented. Once these are issued, Safaricom will take leadership in assisting our remaining subscribers to comply. Safaricom undertakes to fully comply with the directive as soon as the process, that should include the necessary supporting legal guidelines on access to and preparation of the databank have been put in place,”added Mr. Joseph

Safaricom is a total telecoms operator and the leader in its category in Kenya and the region, with a subscriber base of over 13 million. It is quoted on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, where it trades on the commercials counter.