The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has dispelled reports stating that the M-Pesa downtime experienced on Tuesday, January 9, was intentional to enable integration of its system with the Safaricom-owned cash transfer service.
Shortly after the news about the downtime broke, several users on social media posted information stating that the downtime was meant to allow the integration of the two systems.
Consequently, speculations about the real cause surfaced with different users circulating their versions of the story.
However, KRA labeled such claims as fake and urged members of the public to disregard it.
“Kindly be advised that this is fake news,” KRA posted on its X account.
Safaricom Apologizes After M-Pesa Downtime
In its official statement, M-Pesa apologized for the inconveniences caused by the downtime.
However, the telecommunications company did not reveal the cause of the delays experienced by customers.
Amid the disruptions, Kenyans who rely on M-Pesa to make transactions voiced their frustrations about the inconveniences caused.
Some gave testimonies about how the downtime affected them in their businesses or while paying for goods and services.
Customers using the cash transfer service at the time experienced feedback including one issuing an apology and stating that M-Pesa’s system was under maintenance.
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Among those who commented include the Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Ezekiel Mutua who pointed out that the disruption was dent on Safaricom’s credibility.
“M-Pesa cannot afford this kind of disruption. It’s a huge dent on the credibility of a service we have all known for reliability,” the MCSK CEO stated.
Since its launch in 2007, M-Pesa has gradually grown to become an integral part of the economy.
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A big chunk of Kenyan population uses M-Pesa to transfer money across various locations making it the go-to system for cash transfer.
In addition, business have turned to cashless transaction to further cement its place in Kenya’s economy.
According to results by Safaricom in 2023, the value of M-Pesa transactions stood at Kes 35.86 trillion- implying that at an average of Ksh98 billion was transacted on a daily basis.
