"Regulator lacks motive, tools to tap private calls"

...The article, under the banner “State gets greenlight to tap private phone calls”, created the false impression that the court had given the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) the go-ahead to implement a system that would snoop on private conversations of mobile phone subscribers. This is not the case. Left unclarified, the noble objectives that the CA sought to achieve by implementing the Device Management System (DMS) could be lost on Kenyans...

Once implemented, the system will deal a deathblow to the thriving local black market of stolen handsets, and control illegal termination of traffic, also known as SIM-boxing. It is noteworthy that the CA is not an intelligence entity, and has no interest in or capacity to tap people’s telephone conversations. The CA is a responsible corporate citizen that respects and upholds the constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy...As directed by the courts, the CA will now move with speed to continue public consultation with the industry and other stakeholders on the best way to deploy the system in order to ensure Kenyans accrue the aforecited benefits.