Kenya’s largest telco has won a protracted court battle over inactive SIM cards.

High Court judge Joseph Sergon in his verdict in favour of Safaricom found that subscribers ought to know the terms and conditions set by the mobile services provider after purchasing the cards.

At the heart of the case filed by Alex Gakuru, Humphrey Atuti, Alice Njoki, Joseph Mwangi, Dennis Mwaura and Jackson Enonda in 2011 was that Safaricom deactivated their lines after they failed to use them for some period.

They argued that they had migrated to other mobile networks but retained their Safaricom lines.

However, the judge found that they did not provide evidence of the time they stopped using the lines or show that their businesses were affected.