Thousands of Kenyans are raising alarm after unexplained deductions were made from their M-Pesa accounts, with telecommunications giant Safaricom PLC attributing the incident to a “system issue” linked to its Fuliza overdraft service.

The controversy erupted over the weekend when lawyer Eric Muriuki publicly accused the company of making unauthorized withdrawals from his account. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Muriuki shared a screenshot of his exchange with Safaricom customer care, showing the company admitting it had failed to bill him correctly for Fuliza usage between February 26 and March 20, 2026.

The correction, Safaricom said, resulted in a KSh 60 deduction from his account — applied without prior notice or a detailed breakdown.

“I don’t believe you. This is theft,” Muriuki wrote, adding that Kenyans’ money was no longer safe with the telco. His remarks quickly gained traction online, triggering a wave of similar complaints.

Flood of Customer Complaints

What began as a single complaint soon snowballed into a nationwide outcry. Dozens of M-Pesa users reported similar deductions, ranging from as little as KSh 27 to over KSh 1,300, all attributed to alleged Fuliza arrears within the same three-week period.

Writer and commentator Beatrice Wanjiru described the situation as “a huge scandal,” noting that some affected users claimed they had never activated Fuliza, while others insisted they had already cleared their balances.

Many users reported receiving no advance notification, only SMS alerts after the deductions had already been made. Others pointed out that the messages referenced a broad date range, making it difficult to verify specific transactions.

“They can’t even pinpoint the exact date,” one user posted, echoing a frustration shared widely across social media.

Safaricom’s Explanation Raises Questions

In response, Safaricom acknowledged a technical fault that disrupted the billing of daily Fuliza fees during the period in question. The company said it had applied a one-time “catch-up” adjustment across affected accounts and assured customers that no further deductions would follow.

However, the explanation has done little to quell public anger.

Critics have questioned why the adjustments were made without prior notice or itemised statements, and how individuals who claim never to have used Fuliza were included in the deductions.

Equally concerning is the lack of transparency. Safaricom has not disclosed the total amount recovered, the number of affected accounts, or how individual charges were calculated — leaving many to question the integrity of the process.

Pattern of Controversies

The Fuliza deductions controversy is the latest in a string of disputes involving Safaricom’s mobile money platform.

In February 2026, Nairobi businesswoman Eunice Nganga filed a constitutional petition challenging Safaricom’s policy of using erroneously sent M-Pesa funds to settle third-party Fuliza debts.

Nganga’s case stems from a 2024 incident in which she accidentally sent KSh 2,700 to the wrong number. Safaricom declined to reverse the transaction, instead applying the funds to clear the recipient’s Fuliza balance — a move she argues is unlawful. The case is currently before the High Court.

Earlier, in 2023, a class-action suit filed by three M-Pesa users accused Safaricom and its partners, including Vodafone Group, of operating Fuliza in a manner akin to unlicensed banking and mismanaging customer funds held in trust accounts. The case remains ongoing.

Bonga Points Fraud Adds to Crisis

Compounding the situation, Safaricom also confirmed reports of unauthorized Bonga Points transfers over the same weekend. Customers reported waking up to find their loyalty points depleted through transactions carried out in the early hours of the morning without their consent.

The company acknowledged “irregularities” in the system and said investigations were underway.

The coincidence of both incidents — involving the removal of customer value without authorization — has intensified scrutiny of Safaricom’s systems and internal controls.

Regulatory Pressure Mounts

The unfolding crisis has renewed calls for intervention by regulators, including the Communications Authority of Kenya and the Central Bank of Kenya.

Lawmakers have also previously expressed frustration with Safaricom’s failure to appear before parliamentary committees, particularly on issues relating to data protection and service delivery.

Analysts warn that the scale of Fuliza — which processes millions of micro-transactions daily — means even small discrepancies can translate into significant aggregate sums when applied across millions of users.

Erosion of Public Trust

For many Kenyans, M-Pesa is not just a payment platform but a financial lifeline, handling everything from rent payments to school fees and business transactions.

The latest controversy has therefore struck at the heart of public trust in one of the country’s most critical financial systems.

Consumer advocates are now urging affected users to file formal complaints with regulators, arguing that collective action may be the only way to compel accountability.

As pressure mounts, the key question remains whether Safaricom will provide full transparency on the deductions, or whether the incident will become yet another unresolved chapter in Kenya’s growing list of digital finance disputes.

The post Safaricom’s Fuliza ‘System Error’ Sparks Nationwide Outrage as Kenyans Allege Silent M-Pesa Deductions appeared first on Daily Trends.

Safaricom has moved to clarify how the Social Health Authority (SHA) can deduct money from M-PESA accounts without prompting users to enter their PIN, following public concern over automatic deductions linked to the Lipa Mdogo Mdogo health insurance service.

The clarification came after an M-PESA user took to social media on Monday, January 12, 2026, questioning how funds were being withdrawn from his account without his direct authorization at the time of payment.

The user, identified on X as @UCollince, said the deductions began shortly after he enrolled in SHA’s Lipa Mdogo Mdogo contribution plan.

“Good morning @SafaricomPLC. Kindly explain how @_shakenya is able to deduct money from our M-PESA accounts without prompting us to enter our PIN. This started happening after we registered for the Lipa Mdogo Mdogo service. We need clarification on how this authorization works,” he wrote.

The post quickly gained traction online, with many Kenyans expressing unease over what they perceived as silent deductions from their mobile wallets, raising broader questions about consent, transparency, and data security.

Safaricom Responds

In response, Safaricom explained that the deductions occur when a customer has activated M-PESA Ratiba, the telco’s standing order feature, and has granted SHA permission to auto-deduct contributions.

“Hello Collince, apologies for that. If you have activated M-PESA Ratiba, which is a standing order service on M-PESA, and enabled SHA to auto-deduct, this can happen without prompting for the PIN,” Safaricom stated.

However, the user disputed Safaricom’s explanation, arguing that his mother never activated M-PESA Ratiba, yet her money was being deducted without her authorization.

Safaricom did not respond to that concern.

According to the telco, once a user authorises a standing order, future payments can be processed automatically without requiring repeated PIN confirmation.

What Is M-PESA Ratiba?

M-PESA Ratiba was introduced in October 2024 as a first-of-its-kind mobile money feature allowing users to set up recurring payments directly from their M-PESA wallets.

The service enables automatic transfers on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, making it ideal for recurring obligations such as rent, school fees, insurance premiums, subscriptions, utility bills, and now health insurance contributions.

Safaricom says the feature is designed to simplify payments and improve consistency, with no penalties for failed or cancelled standing orders due to insufficient balance.

Public Concerns Persist

Despite the explanation, the incident has reignited debate over consumer awareness and digital consent, with some users arguing that many Kenyans may not fully understand the implications of activating auto-deduction services.

Consumer rights advocates are now calling for clearer communication, stronger opt-in notifications, and easier ways for users to monitor and cancel standing orders.

As SHA ramps up enrolment into its health financing programs and M-PESA continues to anchor Kenya’s digital payments ecosystem, the episode underscores the growing tension between convenience and control in mobile money transactions.

For now, Safaricom is urging users to review their M-PESA Ratiba settings and confirm which organisations have permission to auto-deduct funds from their wallets.

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Safaricom has announced a scheduled maintenance exercise that will temporarily interrupt Fuliza services on Monday, 17 November 2025, as the company upgrades the overdraft facility used by millions of Kenyans daily.

In a notice issued on Saturday, November 15, 2025, Safaricom confirmed that the Fuliza platform will undergo a system upgrade between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m., during which the service may experience intermittent availability. The telco assured customers that all other M-PESA services will remain fully operational throughout the one-hour maintenance window.

“We are continually improving our platform to enhance our services, connecting you—our customers—with more innovations and an even better experience,” the communication reads in part. Safaricom added that the upgrade is part of its commitment to offering “always-on, safe, secure, and worry-free financial products and services.”

The company emphasized that the maintenance timing was intentionally scheduled during off-peak hours to minimize disruption, noting that only Fuliza services would be affected.

“We apologize for any inconvenience that may be caused and thank you for your continued support,” Safaricom said.

Fuliza, an overdraft service integrated into M-PESA, has become one of Kenya’s most widely used digital financial tools, enabling users to complete transactions even when they have insufficient balances. Any downtime—however brief—affects millions of daily transactions, making Safaricom’s advance notice crucial for planning.

The telco did not reveal the specific enhancements expected from the upgrade, but insiders suggest Safaricom has been working on improving speed, stability, and fraud detection capabilities within the Fuliza ecosystem.

Customers relying on Fuliza for early-morning transactions have been advised to plan accordingly.

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Safaricom PLC has announced scheduled system maintenance that will affect millions of M-PESA customers.

The telco, in a statement issued on Saturday, April 5, 2025, said the system maintenance for its M-Pesa services was set to take place on the night of Monday, April 7, 2025, from 1:00 am to 1:30 am.

According to Safaricom, the 30-minute maintenance is part of ongoing efforts to improve service delivery and customer experience.

“During the 30-minute maintenance period, all M-Pesa services will be available intermittently,” the notice read.

However, Safaricom assured customers that other services, including calls, data, and SMS, would remain unaffected during the brief system upgrade.

The telco emphasized that the timing of the maintenance had been carefully selected to minimize inconvenience to users.

“We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for choosing us as your trusted service provider,” the company stated.

M-Pesa is celebrating 18 years this year since it was launched on March 6, 2007.

It started as a domestic mobile money platform in 2007, giving millions of unbanked Kenyans access to financial services. 

Fast-forward to today, and the service has evolved into a financial powerhouse, extending its reach far beyond Kenya’s borders.

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All M-PESA services, including money transfers, withdrawals, payments, and other financial operations, will be unavailable for 30 minutes on the night of Monday, March 24, 2025, leading telecom provider Safaricom has announced.

Safaricom, in a statement issued on Saturday, March 22, 2025, said that there will be a brief MPESA outage due to planned maintenance of the platform.

It is anticipated that the 30-minute maintenance will start at 1:00 AM and end at 1:30 AM.

Customers were informed by the business, though, that other Safaricom services, such as calls, data, and SMS, would not be impacted and would carry on as usual.

Safaricom says the timing of the maintenance has been planned to result in the least inconvenience to our customers.

“Dear Customer, We are continuously innovating and enhancing our services to connect our customers with endless possibilities. To meet our promise to always offer Reliable, Safe, Secure and a Superior customer experience, we will be conducting a scheduled system maintenance on the night of Monday 24th March 2025 starting from 01.00AM to 01.30AM,” Safaricom announced.

“During the 30 minutes maintenance period, all M-PESA services will be intermittent. All other Safaricom services including calls, data and SMS services will be available uninterrupted. The timing of this maintenance has been planned to result in the least inconvenience to our customers. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and thank you for choosing us as your trusted provider.”

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All Mpesa services will be unavailable for almost 13 hours, Safaricom PLC has announced.

In a notice issued to its customers on Friday July 17, 2020, Safaricom said that M-pesa services will be undergoing an upgrade from Saturday night July 18 to Sunday morning July 19.

The planned maintenance is set to start at at 10 pm on Saturday to Sunday at 10 am. All M-pesa services including airtime purchase shall be temporarily unavailable during this time.

According to Safaricom, the timing of the maintenance activity has been scheduled to result in the least inconvenience to customers.

This is however, not the first time the services are being interrupted for maintenance and upgrading purposes.

The first scheduled maintenance in June 2020, was announced on Wednesday, June 17, scheduled for Thursday from midnight to 5 am.

M-pesa usage has risen since March when the government appealed to Kenyans to use mobile money services as opposed to cash, to curb the spread of Covid-19. 

Safaricom M-pesa customers can continue enjoying free transactions under Ksh 1,000 as the Central Bank of Kenya on Wednesday, June 24 announced the extension of a set of measures that were announced in March 2020.

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Did you think your M-Pesa transactions were secure? Not if KRA has its way.

The Kenya Revenue Authority now plans to track our M-Pesa transactions to establish if what you declare on your tax returns matches what goes in and out of your mobile wallet.

The authority needs to collect  Sh1.9 trillion this year to finance the government’s Sh3.02 trillion budget.

So just to be sure you at not shortchanging the state, KRA plans to access and keep track of your financial flows through M-Pesa, PesaLink, PayPal and other mobile money platforms.The data will help the taxman match it with your returns to see if the figures are consistent.

Also on KRA’s radar for revenue are companies operating digitally in Kenya but with foreign physical addresses, such as Facebook, Twitter, Uber and Amazon among others.

KRA officials told the Star authority is aware of evolving businesses in the country, most of which have gone digital, hence generating money online.

Joseline Ogai, KRA deputy commissioner for Research, Knowledge Management and Corporate Planning, and Maurice Orei, a deputy commissioner in charge of Policy, said the authority has embarked on data matching in an increasingly digital economy.

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview at Times Towers, the officials said data matching will help it monitor the transaction and reconcile the tax returns with the financial flows relating to an individual or company.

“We are taking data matching very seriously as our next frontier in digital revenue monitoring. Soon, we will be able to catch tax cheats who make nil or few entries in their tax filings, yet the money they generate online is high,” Ogai said.

“You cannot say you file less in returns but the amount of money you handle in your M-Pesa, maybe generated from your side hustles, is high and you are not declaring,” he said.

The deputy commissioners said the new approach is based on the fact that the informal sector is fledgeling and the conventional way of tracking financial flows has led to a lot of leaks.

“When I pay my mechanic, I use a mobile platform such as M-Pesa as the transaction is quick and informal. So if you look at that person [the mechanic], you may think he has no income yet he has, but informally, and he does not declare,” Ogai said.

He said while most commercial entities with mobile payment platforms such as paybill tills have a mechanism of tax compliance, numerous others avoid the tills, requiring their customers to pay via M-Pesa but in the conventional way of sending money directly.

They too must be netted to pay their fair share, Ogai said.

The use of data matching, according to the deputy commissioners, is already paying off. They cited cases in which high-profile business entities were spotted for allegedly evading paying tax by manipulating the system.

In one case, Ogai said, the data KRA had in its system had created a pattern over the years but they changed suddenly over a period, raising suspicion.

“We have data from the annual returns. The data includes the amount of salaries the corporates pay, their revenues and the tax they should pay. If we get less, we must get an explanation,” he said.

Further, the taxman will now connect money trails to monitor payments in the economy so that “we see if people receiving the payments as well as those making them are declaring,” Ogai said

“We will be asking you, ‘Why are you declaring this much [if it is less], yet so and so received payments from you, suggesting that your earning is higher?,” he said.

The push by KRA to monitor your mobile money transaction record is not new.

In 2016, giant telco Safaricom rejected the Treasury-backed taxman’s quest to gain unfettered access to its customers’ mobile money records.

KRA justified its move then, as now, that it was after busting tax cheats and widening the tax base.

In rebuffing KRA, Safaricom said there were no legal regimes that would allow the taxman access to the customer data as it would be a breach of confidentiality.

To address this hurdle, the officials told the Star that KRA is pinning its hopes on the Data Protection Bill already before the National Assembly to clear any grey areas that have barred it from accessing individuals’ digital money data.

Section 7 of the Data Protection Bill, which is undergoing stakeholder participation before the Senate, gives public institutions a sweeping mandate to access personal data without first seeking permission from an individual.

“An agency shall, subject to Subsection (2), where it requires personal data from a person, collect such information directly from the data subject for a purpose which is specific, explicitly defined and lawful,” the draft law reads.

These lawful purposes include prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution, and punishment of crime or complying with an obligation imposed by law.

“It is not that there are no laws empowering KRA to generate revenue from online transactions. But the hue and cry that arose when we first sought to implement this approach will be addressed by the Data Protection Bill currently before the House,” Orei said.

The officials said KRA is under immense pressure to generate more revenue to fund government ambitious projects, such as the Big Four agenda. Such pressure is normal, they said.

Foreign companies

Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Taxify as well as online malls such as Jumia and Kilimall among others will be accessed through this arrangement.

Facebook, Inc., the American online social media and social networking service company, is based in Menlo Park, California. Twitter is also American, headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Taxi-hailing company Uber is headquartered in the same city.

All of these companies operate in the country but their revenue is repatriated to their home countries.

Orei said the tax authority has entered into international partnerships that would see it appoint tax representatives abroad to assist it with collecting revenues for companies resident there.

For example, he said, Amazon which digitally operates in Kenya but has physical office addresses outside KRA’s jurisdiction, will be taxed through an appointed tax representative.

The representative will then remit revenues to KRA.

“All the companies even PayPal, Facebook, Twitter and others will now remit their revenues to our representatives in the countries where they are domiciled for onward remittance to us to help the government fund its projects,” Orei said.

The international partnership envisaged will only be realised if MPs ratify an international tax alliance framework called the Mutual Agreement Contract (MAC), which the authority signed recently.

“The MAC framework is already before the lawmakers to ratify and domesticate. We hope they expedite this so that it starts rolling,” Orei said, emphasising that this was part of the wider policy to broaden the tax bracket and collect more revenue.

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