Phone firm CEOs warned of arrest over unlisted lines

Four mobile phone company bosses have been warned that they face arrest for allowing phones with unregistered SIM cards to make calls and send messages using their companies’ networks.

The warning came as it emerged that the police are trying to trace the telephone numbers they suspect were used by terrorists who killed 67 people during last month’s attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.

The police and the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) on Monday said the four top executives risk arrest for the sale of pre-activated SIM cards.

Already, some of the companies’ agents have been arrested for selling SIM cards without first registering them as required by law. CCK and police officers have since Sunday been carrying out investigations across the country into the sale of the pre-activated SIM cards. According to CCK, all four operators have been caught on the wrong side of the law.

“Even the CEOs of these companies are criminally liable and they will be arrested. There is no doubt about that. A law has been broken and they have to face the consequences,” Dr Fred Matiang’i, the Cabinet Secretary for Information, Communication and Technology told a press conference on Monday. He was with the Inspector-General of Police, Mr David Kimaiyo and CCK director-general Francis Wangusi.

Safaricom, whose CEO is Mr Bob Collymore, is the largest mobile telephone operator in the country. The others are Orange Telkom, led by Mr Mickael Ghossein, Airtel, whose managing director is Mr Shivan Bhargava and yuMobile under country manager Madhur Taneja.

According to data CCK released on Monday, there are 684,139 unregistered subscribers who are still active. Airtel and yuMobile are responsible for 385,267 and 298,872 subscribers respectively.

Although information indicates that both Safaricom and Orange have no unregistered SIM cards on their networks, the government has cast doubt over the accuracy of these figures and is carrying out an audit of all operators to ensure that they have submitted correct statistics.

“Clearly, it looks like the companies may not have acted as truthfully as they were expected to do but before we accuse them, we are working with the regulator to review the regular reports they have submitted,” he said.

In a telephone interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Collymore said CCK had dispatched an official to audit Safaricom records to ensure that the subscriber numbers tallied with those submitted to the regulator.

“We don’t think we have any unregistered SIM cards operating on our network. It should be impossible to make a call on our network if a SIM card is not registered,” he said.

Orange said that it had not “received any communication from the regulator” on the matter and would be unable to comment.

yuMobile and Airtel did not respond to queries by the Nation.

The operators were on Monday given 48 hours to deactivate all unregistered SIM cards on their networks and to ensure that none of their agents sells un-registered SIM cards. Agents who have been caught selling pre-activated SIM cards may face a jail term of three years or a fine of Sh300,000.

SIM card users will be required to report the loss of a card to the police before activating a new one. This can be used to exonerate the user from any criminal activities that may be carried out using the lost SIM card.

Dr Matiang’i said criminals obtain SIM cards without registration and use them to engage in “all manner of crimes”.

“We cannot get hold of these criminals as fast we could if these SIM cards were registered,” he said. “It is a requirement of the law that all SIM cards should be registered so that we know who the owners are. And it is important that we pay attention to this because it has very serious security implications.”

The crackdown on operators comes in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall, in which more than 70 people died. According to witness accounts, some of the terrorists made calls using their mobile phones during the attack. Mr Kimaiyo declined to shed light on whether the police had retrieved the phone records of the terrorists.

“We might not release the information at the moment because it might jeopardise the investigations we are carrying out,” Mr Kimaiyo said.

The drive to switch of unregistered SIM cards was launched by the government last year amid increasing reports of crimes perpetrated by anonymous mobile phone subscribers. According to Mr Kimaiyo, these crimes include fraud and the demand of ransom by kidnappers. Some of the calls were traced to Kamiti Prison inmates.

The deadline for deactivating unregistered SIM cards was December 31, 2012. However, mobile operators had until the end of March, 2013 to ensure that there were no unregistered SIM cards operating on their networks.

One shot as police and youth battle in Majengo, Mombasa

One person has been shot as rioting youth engage police in running battles in Majengo area, Mombasa.

The youth are protesting Thursday's night killing of Sheikh Ibrahim Rogo and three others by gunmen.

A church has also been torched.

Two people were rushed to the Coast General Hospital by the Red Cross as the unrest spread to Kisauni.

Several others including hawkers have also been injured.

Businesses in the Central Business District have been closed turning the coastal city into a ghost town. Schools have been closed and learners sent home.

A contingent of General Service Unit (GSU) and regular police battling with rioters.

Exclusive photos of the Majengo riot

The fire dept at work. Majengo Salvation army Church

St Paul's University graduation ceremony resumes after security scare

A graduation ceremony at St Paul's University in Limuru, central Kenya was temporarily interrupted following a security scare Friday.

Students and guests were asked to leave the graduation square to allow police conduct a sweep.

Public Relations Officer Anthony Kagiri confirmed the security threat and said the ceremony would be interrupted for about one hour as the police continued with the security checks.

"We have over 1,200 graduates in here, hundreds of guests and we will have the ceremony back on in 30 minutes,” said Mr Kagiri.

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi was the chief guest.

Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala had just addressed the graduates before the ceremony was interrupted around 10am.

The university was awash with police officers carrying out security checks of all the guests and graduates.

The Interior Ministry said on Twitter it had deployed 80 armed security officers to the university following the "terror threat" at the institution.

Later, the graduation ceremony continued after police gave the all clear.

US affirms ties with Kenyans after mall attack

The United States top diplomat for Africa on Thursday affirmed ties with the Kenyan people but stopped short of voicing explicit support for President Kenyatta.

"We're working very, very closely" with Kenya's security services, Assistant Secretary of State Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a teleconference with reporters.

She said FBI agents investigating the terror attack on the Westgate Mall were sent to Nairobi "to help the Government of Kenya".

Asked whether the US could have done something to prevent the Westgate attack and a recent massacre in Nigeria, Ms Thomas-Greenfield replied: "If something could have been done to stop those events, it would have been done."

"If we can stop terrorism," she reiterated, "we will do it."

The assistant secretary sidestepped a question from a Nation reporter about what effect the Westgate atrocity would have on the Obama administration's relations with President Kenyatta.

Ms Thomas-Greenfield noted that President Obama had called Mr Kenyatta to "express our condolences and offer our assistance to the Kenyan people."

"We will continue to support the Kenyan people as they deal with terrorism, as they have dealt with the fire at the airport," she said.

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But Ms Thomas-Greenfield did not address a query as to whether the US will now modify the "consequences" it had said would ensue if Kenyan voters selected a particular candidate for president -- understood to be Mr Kenyatta. She also did not say what exactly those "consequences" have amounted to.

The career diplomat was also non-committal on the US position regarding Kenya Parliament's vote to remove the country from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

She did not refer specifically to the Kenya cases before the ICC. But she did say that although the US is not a signatory of the treaty establishing the ICC, Washington works "closely with the member-states to ensure the ICC is able to carry out its responsibilities and its duties".

The assistant secretary, who took up the post following the retirement earlier this year of Ambassador Johnnie Carson, added that the US wants to "hear what African governments have to say about this".

That was an apparent reference to next week's African Union summit which is expected to consider a mass pull-out from the ICC's jurisdiction.

President Uhuru Kenyatta puts incompetent state officers on notice

President Uhuru Kenyatta has put on notice civil servants sleeping on their jobs asking those who are not equal to the task to leave.

He said the government will not tolerate incompetent officers who cannot deal with challenges slowing delivery of services to Kenyans.

“It is irritating to observe that part of our national challenges is caused, not by unavoidable or elemental phenomena, but sheer incompetence and corruption by people who ought to know better.  This mediocrity lies to waste the efforts of committed, diligent and professional public servants and inflicts misery on thousands of taxpaying Kenyans,’ he said.
“It is not desirable at this stage of our journey to progress, to be obstructed by characters who give no value for public money spent on them.  The time has come to detect and cull them.  On the other hand,” he added.
“If you find yourself suited for the call, I assure you of my government’s full support going forward.  My Administration will recognize and reward those who are conscientious and hard working.”
Uhuru said his administration has outlined government’s goals and will be rewarding success and heavily penalizing failure. “The government will no longer refuge to loafers and joy riders,” he said.
From the 2014/15 financial year, Government will simultaneously conduct public consultations on Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Plan targets.  This means that the consultations will happen at the same sitting.  The public will have a sit at the table when the consultations happen.  “We will, therefore, have a smooth cycle starting with planning, then resource allocation and tracking of results, concluding with a Government framework of rewards and sanctions for the public service.”
The President was speaking during the launch of the second Medium Term Plan.
The Medium Term Plan is the basis for ministerial strategic plans, which in turn guide the performance contracts. The Second Medium Term Plan of Vision 2030 will run on the theme, “Transforming Kenya: A Pathway to Devolution, Socio-economic Development, Equity and National Unity.”  It carries on the system of incorporating critical aspects of each governance pillar at each phase of implementation of Vision 2030.

Attorney General Githu Muigai's Statement on the ICC arrest warrant against Walter Barasa.

The procedure for enforcing any warrant issued by the international criminal court against any individual in Kenya is subject to the very clear procedure set out under the International Crimes Act 2010.
These procedures require the minister in charge of the interior upon receipt of the formal warrant of arrest to present the said warrant to the judiciary for enforcement.
During the judicial consideration of the legality of the warrant,the subject is entitled to make representations to the court.

The final determination on the enforceability of the warrant is therefore a judicial one.