Kenyans who have not verified their Sim card details will see services suspended from Sunday. They will not be able to make or receive calls, send or receive messages or even access mobile internet services.

In April, the Communications Authority of Kenya extended the deadline for verification by six months.

By Thursday, only 53 million subscribers had verified their registration data. Of these, 38 million were Safaricom subscribers, the largest telecoms company in the country. Airtel and Telkom Kenya saw 13.4 million and 1.8 million subscribers, respectively, verify their details two days to the deadline.

Sim card owners can update their registration details by presenting their national identity card to a merchant, or register through online portals set up by the service providers.

The verification drive is aimed at weeding out Sim cards that have been fraudulently registered and reduce cases of theft and insecurity in the country.

“We don’t want criminals to have a field day out there,” Liston Kirui, from the Communications Authority of Kenya said on Friday.