NAIROBI, Kenya – Safaricom dismissed 118 employees over fraud-related offences in the financial year ended March 2026, while referrals to law enforcement doubled, even as the telecommunications company fell short of its target for reducing fraud incidents.
The figures in Safaricom’s 2026 Sustainable Business Report show the scale of the company’s internal disciplinary response, alongside the challenges it continues to face in protecting customers, company records and its expanding digital financial services.
The number of employees dismissed rose from 113 in the previous financial year, while cases referred to law enforcement agencies increased from seven to 14. Safaricom also issued three disciplinary warnings during the year, compared with none in the preceding period.
However, the company reported an 82 per cent reduction in fraud incidents against a target of 90 per cent. It recovered 46 per cent of reported fraud losses, indicating that its stated reduction target remained unmet despite the disciplinary measures.
Theft, Data Access and Falsified Records Among Dismissal Grounds
Safaricom lists theft, falsification of records, unauthorised access to customer call records, security breaches and criminal offences among the forms of misconduct that may result in dismissal.
Other cases may lead to termination where an employee breaches contractual obligations or commits gross misconduct, depending on the investigation findings and the nature of the offence.
Fraud remained the most frequently reported category of concern through the company’s ethics hotline during the financial year.
Safaricom said suspected cases are identified through customer complaints or proactively through its fraud management system.
Once a case is flagged, a manager or the Ethics and Compliance team investigates the allegations and recommends whether the matter should be handled informally or through formal disciplinary proceedings.
Investigations are documented in reports maintained outside the fraud management system. Password-protected spreadsheets, accessible only to the Ethics and Compliance team, are used to track cases.
After an investigation is completed, a summary report and supporting documents are sent to Human Resources. A disciplinary committee then determines the appropriate action under the company’s internal policies, including warnings, dismissal or referral of suspected criminal offences to law enforcement agencies.
Sh953 Million Recovered From Inflated Agent Commissions
The report also details Safaricom’s recovery of Sh953 million linked to inflated agent commissions through monitoring and data analytics.
The amount was lower than the Sh1.7 billion recovered in the previous financial year.
The company did not establish that the full amount recovered was attributable to employee misconduct or that it was directly linked to the 118 dismissals.
The recoveries nevertheless highlight the role of data analysis and internal monitoring in identifying irregularities within the company’s operations and agent network.
Safaricom also monitored approximately 1.25 billion cyber intrusion attempts and investigated more than 130,000 security events during the year, reflecting the scale of threats facing a telecommunications business that handles large volumes of customer information and digital transactions.
Data Protection and Digital Trust in Focus
The company’s disclosures come as customer privacy and the security of mobile money services remain central to public confidence in digital transactions.
Safaricom Group Chief Executive Peter Ndegwa said protecting customers had become a leadership and sustainability priority, rather than simply a technology concern.
“Those numbers underline why digital trust is not an IT issue. It is a leadership issue, a customer issue and increasingly a sustainability issue,” Ndegwa said during the report’s launch at the Michael Joseph Centre in Nairobi on October 27, 2026.
The report recorded privacy trust scores of 70 per cent for M-PESA and 61 per cent for Safaricom during the financial year.
The company’s anti-fraud efforts are taking place alongside the expansion of its digital financial services, increasing the importance of safeguarding customer accounts, information and transactions.
What Kenyan Employment Law Requires
The dismissals also bring into focus the legal safeguards that govern disciplinary proceedings in Kenya.
Section 41 of the Employment Act requires an employer considering termination on grounds of misconduct to explain the reason to the employee in a language the employee understands and give them an opportunity to respond. The employee is entitled to be accompanied by another employee or a shop-floor union representative of their choice.
The employer must hear and consider the employee’s representations before making the decision, in accordance with the applicable statutory requirements.
In a separate case reported in August 2026, the Employment and Labour Relations Court upheld Safaricom’s dismissal of former regional expansion head Brian Njoroge Wamatu over alleged unauthorised access to and sharing of confidential company and customer information.
The court found that Safaricom had a valid reason for the dismissal and had followed a fair disciplinary process. The case concerned an earlier employment dispute and was separate from the 118 dismissals disclosed in the latest report.
