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High Concerns as Kenya Mandates Mobile Phone IMEI Registration

October 24, 2024

High Concerns as Kenya Mandates Mobile Phone IMEI Registration

High concerns as the Communications Authority of Kenya mandates mobile phone IMEI registration as part of tax compliance, effective January 1, 2025.

The regulations will apply to all stakeholders, including local assemblers, importers, distributors, and mobile network operators, to ensure that only tax-compliant devices are sold and connected to Kenyan networks.

Under the new regulations, all local device assemblies are required to upload the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) Number of each assembled device to the Kenya Revenue Authority provided a portal to ensure that all locally assembled devices are tax compliant.

All mobile phone importers, whether for sale, testing, or research purposes are required to include the International Mobile Equipment Identity Number in their respective import documents submitted to the KRA. The CA emphasised that the disclosure is mandatory for the registration of the devices in the National Master Database on Tax-Compliant Devices.

The Authority also directed that retailers and wholesalers of mobile devices must ensure that they only retail or distribute mobile devices that are tax compliant, adding that it will provide the means by which the tax compliance status of mobile devices can be verified before purchase by retailers or end-users.

“Mobile network operators must ensure that they only connect devices to their networks after verifying the tax compliance status through a whitelist database of compliant devices, which will be provided by the Authority.

Operators will also be required to provide for the grey-listing of non-compliant devices to facilitate regularisation within a prescribed period, failure to which the devices will be blacklisted,” the Authority added.

This will take effect from January 1, 2025

CA confirmed that the new requirement will only apply to all devices imported or assembled in the country from November 1, 2024, and all existing devices that will be on the mobile networks by October 31, 2024, will not be affected.

This development has been met with mixed reactions with a social media user expressing that it is a violation of privacy that has nothing to do with tax and everything to do with tracking citizens.

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) regulates the ICT industry, telecommunications, eCommerce, cybersecurity, broadcasting, and postal services. It manages Kenya’s numbering and frequency spectrum, administers the Universal Service Fund (USF), protects ICT consumers, and facilitates trade by clearing permits for type-approved equipment through the Kenya Trade Network Agency’s TradeNet System.

In a similar occurrence, the authority recently issued that dealers in Information, Communication, and Technology equipment must comply with the required approval processes before selling or distributing their products.

The directive aims to safeguard consumer health and safety, uphold public interest, and secure telecommunications networks in the country, ensuring that they conform to both national and locally recognised international standards.

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