Why inactive phone numbers cannot be sold without user consent
Crime and Justice
By
Kamau Muthoni
| Mar 20, 2026
High Court rules inactive SIM cards cannot be sold without the owner’s consent. [File Courtesy]
A person’s mobile phone number is a digital identity and contains data that cannot be transferred to another person, the High Court has declared.
The landmark judgement means that mobile phone service providers should not resell inactive SIM cards.
Justice Lawrence Mugambi yesterday said that although there is a grace period of 90 days before a line is resold, the regulations are silent on how a person can be notified that the number is deactivated and given a chance to reclaim it.
He said the requirement that a person provides their national identification card, a photograph and other essential details, such as the subscriber’s location, makes a mobile number a digital image of the person.
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“A mobile number is by all means a digital identity since it is a digital record that provides a means of identifying a person either directly or indirectly. This position is reinforced further by the undisputed position that indeed the one’s number is now the means of authentication for credentials for transactions, as a one-time password (OTP) is sent to such number. A mobile phone forms part of a person’s data that warrants protection under the right to privacy as it holds the key to delicate information about an individual,” said Justice Mugambi.
He noted that it is even worse for persons who are behind bars for a long time, as they lose their digital identity once incarcerated because they are not allowed to use phones. According to the judge, being jailed does not in any way mean that one’s identity is lost or that one's right to be known by others is taken away.
In addition, he said telecommunication companies ought to first advertise the inactive lines, calling for the subscribers to reclaim them, and if no action is taken, resell them.
He directed the Attorney General, the Office of the Data Commissioner and the Communication Authority of Kenya to take measures to ensure that the process is followed.
But on the use of mobile phones in prisons by convicts, Justice Mugambi was categorical that it is prohibited. “From the foregoing, there is a limitation of privacy and communication. This being the case, the limitations are legal unless the petitioners prove that they are unconstitutional. No specific challenge was put on the unconstitutionality of the regulations,” he said, adding that there is a structured way for prisoners to communicate without harming society.
At the same time, Justice Mugambi said a prisoner’s mobile number should not be resold or recycled until they complete their sentence.
Some Kenyans have expressed anger after telecom companies sell numbers that become dormant. Some people, especially those outside the country or the dead, have lost money locked in their SIM cards for cashless transactions.
Digital footprints
The judgement followed a case by a murder convict, Erastus Ngura Odhiambo, who argued that just as a national identification card, a mobile number is unique to each person. He stated that companies have no right to resell the number if not in use.
Ngura said the danger of reselling a mobile number was that people use the same to register emails, bank details, and access government services. For prisoners, he stated, their digital footprints are immediately deleted after the prison authorities confiscate the mobile phones.
“When one is convicted, with the result being a custodial sentence, he or she automatically becomes digitally dead as the Kenya Prisons Services do not allow prisoners to possess personal phones or digital devices within the prisons,” he said.
According to him, the lines hold critical information and data which is lost after transfer to another person.