The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has proposed new guidelines for deactivating and recycling inactive mobile numbers, including safeguards for subscribers who are unable to use their lines for extended periods.
The proposed safeguards would make a number eligible for deactivation after three months without “revenue-generating activity”, including making or receiving calls, sending or receiving SMS messages, using data, topping up airtime or using a value-added service.
Once inactivity is detected, service providers would be required to attempt to notify subscribers using contact details collected during know-your-customer registration, mainly through SMS. The notification period would run for a further three months, giving dormant subscribers up to six months to reactivate their lines.
Thirty days before that period expires, providers would be required to publish lists of numbers facing deactivation on their websites, through other media and in a newspaper with nationwide circulation, on a quarterly basis.
The notice would include the *106# code, which subscribers can use to check whether a number is active, suspended, under recycling or deactivated.
If a number remained inactive after the notice period, providers would be required to “de-link and securely archive the personal data, cached data, and services associated with the previous owner such that they are not accessible to or inherited by any new subscriber”, while retaining records required by law.
Lists of deactivated and recycled numbers would then be shared quarterly with a centralised system that third parties could check before contacting a number about outstanding obligations. Providers would also be required to keep records of contact attempts in line with the Data Protection Act, 2019.
The proposed guidelines include a whitelisting mechanism for numbers belonging to prisoners and other subscribers unable to use their lines for extended periods.
Under the proposal, the Commissioner General of Prisons would submit a prisoner's phone number and national ID details to service providers for whitelisting within three months of sentencing to a term exceeding six months, once appeal options had been exhausted. The same would apply to suspects denied bail who were likely to remain in remand for more than six months.
Caregivers of subscribers who are incapacitated and unable to use their numbers could also apply for whitelisting in person at a service provider's office, presenting identification for both parties. Such requests would only be granted where the number was confirmed inactive, with protection lasting one year and renewable annually.
On technical safeguards, the proposed guidelines state that “by default, newly issued, as well as recycled numbers, shall not receive any marketing messages from either the number issuing service provider or third parties”.
Businesses would be required to obtain explicit consent through a business-specific USSD dial before sending business-to-customer messages, while providers would have to delink numbers from all such consents before recycling them.
The CA said the proposed procedures and technical safeguards are intended to manage Kenya's numbering resources while safeguarding the rights and interests of subscribers. The Authority has invited public submissions on the draft guidelines until 10 September 2026.
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