Safaricom pushed aside 118 staff for fraud within the yr to March, whilst fraud incidents fell 82%, pointing to a declining insider risk amid an intensified crackdown at Kenya’s greatest telecoms operator.
The determine, disclosed within the corporate’s 2026 Sustainable Business Report launched on Tuesday at its Nairobi headquarters, is greater than 4 occasions the 28 dismissals recorded in the year to March 2021. It equates to about 2% of the 5,648 folks the file lists as staff.
Previous disclosures put the tally at 95 in the year to March 2024 and 113 in the year to March 2025, so the climb has been secure slightly than a one-off spike.
Insider behavior carries odd weight at Safaricom as personnel sit down on the subject of buyer information, SIM registration and the agent community that strikes cash throughout M-PESA, Kenya’s dominant mobile-money platform. The file treats robbery, falsifying corporate data, and unauthorised get right of entry to to buyer name data as gross misconduct that may end up in dismissal.
“Our consumers entrust us with their private knowledge, communications and monetary transactions and be expecting our products and services to be protected, dependable and accountable,” Safaricom mentioned within the file.
The file lists 118 fraud instances investigated and 118 dismissals, at the side of 3 disciplinary warnings, up from none the prior yr. Referrals to legislation enforcement doubled from seven to fourteen. Fraud used to be the most typical worry raised via Safaricom’s nameless ethics hotline.
The upward thrust comes as the corporate says its anti-fraud push is operating. It lower fraud incidents by way of 82%, in need of a 90% goal, and recovered 46% of reported fraud losses. Tracking and analytics additionally recovered KES 953 million ($7.4 million) connected to inflated agent commissions.
Safaricom mentioned it moved from an investigation-led type to real-time detection overlaying interior, distributor and mobile-money fraud. The file does no longer spoil down dismissals by way of function, price interior losses, or say what number of instances resulted in fees.
Consistent with the file, fraud consciousness coaching reached 5,643 folks throughout personnel, name centres, M-PESA, vendors and emblem ambassadors, and 98% of staff finished the yearly ethics programme.
Team Leader Chance Officer Nicholas Mulila mentioned the corporate is dedicated to “embedding duty throughout our operations.” Safaricom named in-person social engineering as the biggest supply of shopper fraud.
Crackdown on insider threats
The personnel dismissals over fraud replicate what is occurring within the banking business, the place sharper detection has additionally driven dismissals upper. KCB Group, Kenya’s largest bank by assets, dismissed 60 staff for fraud in 2025, up from 34 in 2024, whilst reported fraud incidents fell to 201 from 339, in step with its sustainability report. Many of the 50 dismissals had been in Kenya.
In Might 2025, Fairness Team’s leader govt officer, James Mwangi, mentioned the lender had dismissed more than 1,200 employees after an audit of personnel transactions, together with private M-PESA process. Mwangi mentioned the corporate would make such behavior audits an enduring follow, very similar to efficiency value determinations.
Fairness handled receiving cash from consumers as grounds for dismissal, a conflict-of-interest take a look at wider than outright fraud. Safaricom’s determine covers handiest instances it investigated as fraud.
Outdoor finance, Kenya Power dismissed at least 20 employees over irregularities within the yr to June 2025, together with 3 who colluded with guards and drivers in a diesel-theft scheme that value it KES 207.6 million ($1.5 million).