In a landmark delivered March 19, 2026 ruling, the Kenya High Court at Milimani ruled that telcos cannot recycle, deactivate, or reassign phone numbers without the original owner’s informed consent.
The court classified registered mobile numbers as personal data/digital identity, protected under Article 31(c) & (d) of the Constitution.
The court has instructed the government to establish a regulatory framework within six months for handling inactive SIM cards to safeguard personal data.
In today’s world, personal numbers are linked to most important accounts, be it bank accounts, schools, health facilities or government facilities such as eCitizen, with OTPs being one of the basic verification methods for such facilities. Reassigning or deactivation without consent denies access or gives it to someone else.
In its ruling, the court said Telcos must stop the “free-for-all” recycling of numbers, which exposes previous owners to security risks, particularly involving financial accounts and personal messages.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi affirmed that mobile numbers are digital identifiers that link information to an individual’s private affairs.
Mugambi quoted Articles 31 (c) and (d) of the Constitution stating these safeguard the right not to have private information exposed unnecessarily.
The ruling stems from a petition by Erastus Ngura Odhiambo vs State filed in June 2024 to curb the risks associated with recycling numbers, such as exposure to former owners’ financial services and private messages.
The peutioner cited situations where indisposed people such as prisoners had no way to keep their phone numbers active as required by telcos, and also argued that reassigning the phone numbers could expose users’ personal information to third parties without their explicit consent.
Whenever a phone number is not used for about six months, telcos usually deactivate it and demand a reactivation process that sometimes fails.
