Stop using your SIM card for 6 months? new CA rules explain what happens next

A mobile phone number that has gone unused for months will not immediately be handed to another subscriber under new procedures published by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

According to the new guidelines, service providers will be required to follow a defined process before an inactive number can be deactivated and recycled.

The guidelines which take effect on September 19, 2026 set out how telecommunications companies are expected to identify inactive numbers, notify their owners, publish numbers facing deactivation and eventually make them available to new subscribers.

The rules also introduce safeguards intended to prevent a new user from inheriting personal information, services or marketing permissions associated with the previous owner.

Under the guidelines, deactivation and recycling will be triggered when a number records no “revenue-generating activity” for three months.

The activities listed by CA include making or receiving a call, sending or receiving an SMS, using mobile data, topping up airtime or using the number for a value-added service.

Once the three-month inactivity period is reached, the service provider is required to make efforts to notify the owner using contact details collected during the number's registration through the Know Your Customer (KYC) process.

Notification may include sending an SMS to the affected number as well as using other contact information associated with the subscriber.

However, the notification process does not end immediately.

The service provider is required to continue the notification process for another three months unless the owner resumes a revenue-generating activity.

This means an inactive number enters a longer process before it can ultimately be recycled.

Thirty days before the end of this additional three-month period, and if the number remains inactive, the provider must publish a list of numbers that are susceptible to deactivation and recycling.

The numbers will remain eligible for activation for 30 days from the date of publication.

CA further requires providers to publish a generic notice of their intention to deactivate and recycle inactive numbers on their websites, publicise it through other media and publish it in a daily newspaper with nationwide circulation on a quarterly basis.

The public notice must also provide the *106# option through which subscribers can check the status of a number, including whether it is suspended, active, under recycle or deactivated.

One of the safeguards addresses what happens to information connected to a number once it is recycled.

After the notice period expires and the number remains inactive, the service provider must delink and securely archive the previous owner's personal data, cached data and services associated with the number.

The information must be handled in a way that ensures it is not accessible to, or inherited by, a new subscriber who eventually receives the number.

The provider must nevertheless retain records required by law.

Service providers will also be required to send a list of all deactivated and recycled numbers to a centralised system on a quarterly basis.

The system will be used by third parties to update their records before calling or sending SMS messages relating to obligations associated with the numbers.

After this process, the provider can initiate recycling and make the number available for provisioning to a new subscriber.

Providers must also retain records of the efforts made to contact subscribers for a period consistent with the Data Protection Act, 2019.

The guidelines introduce another layer of protection around recycled numbers.

Before a number is deactivated and recycled, the service provider must delink it from previously opted-in business-to-customer (B2C) messages.

Newly issued and recycled numbers will, by default, not receive marketing messages from either the service provider that issued the number or third parties.

For a business to send a B2C message, the subscriber must have explicitly dialled a USSD code consenting to receive messages from that specific business.

CA specifies that the USSD code must be business-specific.

Dialling one business's USSD code will therefore not amount to consent to receiving B2C messages from other businesses.

Service providers must maintain records of the USSD consents for the entire period that a number remains active.

The new rules also provide for numbers belonging to people who may remain unable to use their phones for extended periods.

Any person, including a caregiver of someone who may be indisposed and unable to use their number for more than six months, can notify the service provider that the number needs to be whitelisted.

The request can be made at the provider's office or outlet or through another established method that is considered foolproof.

The requesting party must present original identification documents for both themselves and the affected subscriber, together with any other supporting documentation.

CA requires that such whitelisting only be carried out after the provider confirms that the number is inactive.

The whitelisting will last for one year and can subsequently be renewed for another year at a time, provided updated information is supplied and the number remains inactive.

The guidelines specifically provide for people serving prison sentences and suspects held on remand.

The Commissioner General of Prisons is required, within three months of a person being committed to a prison term exceeding six months and after their appeal options have been exhausted, to submit their telephone number and associated national identification number to the relevant service provider for whitelisting.

The submission must indicate the duration of the conviction, and the convict must be notified.

The same process applies where a suspect has been denied bail and is likely to remain in remand for more than six months.

Once the conviction period ends, the number becomes subject to the normal deactivation and recycling conditions.

The guidelines therefore establish a process stretching from inactivity detection and subscriber notification to public notice, data separation and eventual recycling, while creating specific safeguards for numbers whose owners may be unable to use them for extended periods.