Doctor sues Safaricom over SIM card fraud

A doctor has sued telecommunications giant Safaricom #ticker:SCOM over loss of 300,000 after fraudsters used his personal details to register new SIM cards.

Dr Isaac Kiplimo Ng’etich, a Nakuru-based surgeon, says in court documents that the daring criminals used a fake SIM card to ‘sell’ his land to an unsuspecting buyer without his knowledge.

Aggrieved by the incident, Dr Ng’etich now wants to compel the telecommunications company to start capturing subscribers’ biometric data during SIM card registration.

Through his lawyer Elvis Nanda, the surgeon claims the measure will ensure that subscribers are present during registration and the correct personal information captured.

“In order to safeguard the personal information supplied to the telecommunication operators and in order to guarantee social and economic interests of the subscribers, it is necessary that biometric data of the subscriber is captured during registration of Sim cards,” reads the petition.

In his petition Dr Ng’etich claims he was forced to sue after his personal details were used by fraudsters to register two other SIM cards which they used to con people.

The registration, according to Dr Ng’etich, was done without his consent.

The court was told that the fraudsters used Dr Ng’etich’s phone details to initiate a sale transaction involving his land in Nakuru County without his knowledge.

The parcel of land, measuring 0.4 hectares, was allegedly ‘sold’ to one Ms Angelina Chepkemi Sigira for Sh300,000 on June 17 last year.

Ms Sigira is said to have paid for the land through M-Pesa. However, when she approached Dr Ng’etich to transfer the land documents to her, he claimed not to be aware of the transaction.

She then reported the matter to the police which saw Dr Ng’etich arrested and detained for six hours.

It was after investigations that the police discovered that fraudsters had registered two SIM cards in the name of the surgeon which they used to defraud Ms Sigira while masquerading as the land owner.

He was, however, forced to refund Sh300,000 to her in order to cancel the transaction since he was never interested in selling the land.

Dr Ng’etich is now accusing the company of negligence for allowing registration of the two SIM cards in his name without his knowledge and without his express authority which led to his loss, humiliation and defamation.

He wants the court to issue orders restraining the company from effecting further registration of new and existing subscribers without capturing their biometric data including fingerprints, palm prints and face recognition in addition to personal identification information.

He has listed the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) and the Attorney General as interested parties in the case.

Justice Joel Ngugi directed that the matter be mentioned on July 23.