[caption id="attachment_4580" align="aligncenter" width="193" caption="A mobile phone user in Kenya (Photo:Africa Renewal)"][/caption]

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has suspended the purported shut down of all counterfeit mobile phone handsets. The industry regulator had set a 30th April 2012 deadline for shutting down the fake gadgets.

An official announcement from CCK says the regulator does not have capacity to carry out the exercise. He cited this to failure by industry players and CCK to establish a database of genuine and counterfeit mobile phone handsets that would ease tracking and eventual shut down. The blacking out of the handsets has been put of indefinitely.

The move to shut down counterfeit phones would affect an estimated  3 million Kenyans, most of whom are not aware that their communication gadgets are not genuine. It is feared that of the more than 25 million subscribers in Kenya, a small percentage know whether or not their mobile phones are genuine.

Counterfeit handsets lack an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), the unique number used to identify original GSM (Global System for Mobile) devices. This is because they have duplicated IMEI numbers making it difficult for Equipment Identification Registries (EIR) owned by operators to trace them. IMEI numbers aid in tracking the stolen or mobile handsets used to perpetuate criminal activities.

In earlier reports, CCK Acting Director General Mr. Francis Wamukota Wangusi had said the number of the illegal phones in the market accounted for only 9.39 percent contrary to media reports that had put the number higher.