The Communications Authority (CA) is probing all mobile sim cards registered under the controversial pastor Mackenzi.
The Director CA Ezra Chiloba told the special committee investigating the Shakahola cult that the pastor had 4 Safaricom lines and 2 Telkom lines registered under him.
He noted that the lines are believed to have been used to receive money transacted between him and his followers.
“So far mobile numbers registered under ID number 146****are four from Safaricom. From Telkom’s side, we have two lines, so I don’t have information on the Airtel lines. So far, we have six lines which we need to probe further,” he said.
“Our mandate is dealing with your licenses and those licenses have terms and conditions which are part of the subsidiary instruments we use to monitor compliance and when they go outside and get to the online space, we do not have a direct mandate in that particular space. That is the dilemma that we find ourselves in, to what extent can we pull down this,” he said.
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“However given the developments and what we are observing especially when we kept reiterating [on] the content we had in our system it became apparent that this would become a big issue, the online presence of Pastor Machenzie’s teachings and that is why we said let’s mop out all the information that we know about that so that we are able to provide some sense of direction whenever we are called upon.” Chiloba added.
Chiloba further said that CA cannot independently pull-down content airing online without the aid of government’s security organs.
“CA doesn’t have a direct mandate when it comes to enforcement of some of these violations, especially the ones criminal in nature. We have to work with other departments of government, the [Ministry of] Interior, the police, NIS so that we are able to deal with this,” he said.
“Often, in fact, 75% of the time when such incidences happen it is the criminal investigation department that reaches to CA for support.”
The exhumations in Shakahola forest have led to the discovery of 336 bodies, 95 people were also rescued and 613 are still missing.
