Safaricom dismisses 118 staff for fraud, four times the 2021 level

Safaricom dismissed 118 employees for fraud in the year to March, even as fraud incidents fell 82%, pointing to a declining insider threat amid an intensified crackdown at Kenya’s largest telecoms operator.

The figure, disclosed in the company’s 2026 Sustainable Business Report released on Tuesday at its Nairobi headquarters, is more than four times the 28 dismissals recorded in the year to March 2021. It equates to about 2% of the 5,648 people the report lists as employees.

Earlier 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 steady rather than a one-off spike.

Insider conduct carries unusual weight at Safaricom as staff sit close to customer data, SIM registration and the agent network that moves money across M-PESA, Kenya’s dominant mobile-money platform. The report treats theft, falsifying company records, and unauthorised access to customer call records as gross misconduct that can result in dismissal.

“Our customers entrust us with their personal information, communications and financial transactions and expect our services to be secure, reliable and responsible,” Safaricom said in the report.

The report lists 118 fraud cases investigated and 118 dismissals, along with three disciplinary warnings, up from none the prior year. Referrals to law enforcement doubled from seven to 14. Fraud was the most common concern raised through Safaricom’s anonymous ethics hotline.

The rise comes as the company says its anti-fraud push is working. It cut fraud incidents by 82%, short of a 90% target, and recovered 46% of reported fraud losses. Monitoring and analytics also recovered KES 953 million ($7.4 million) linked to inflated agent commissions.

Safaricom said it moved from an investigation-led model to real-time detection covering internal, distributor and mobile-money fraud. The report does not break down dismissals by role, value internal losses, or say how many cases led to charges.

According to the report, fraud awareness training reached 5,643 people across staff, call centres, M-PESA, distributors and brand ambassadors, and 98% of employees completed the annual ethics programme.

Group Chief Risk Officer Nicholas Mulila said the company is committed to “embedding accountability across our operations.” Safaricom named in-person social engineering as the largest source of customer fraud.

Crackdown on insider threats

The staff dismissals over fraud mirror what is happening in the banking industry, where sharper detection has also pushed dismissals higher. KCB Group, Kenya’s largest bank by assets, dismissed 60 staff for fraud in 2025, up from 34 in 2024, even as reported fraud incidents fell to 201 from 339, according to its sustainability report. Most of the 50 dismissals were in Kenya.

In May 2025, Equity Group’s chief executive officer, James Mwangi, said the lender had dismissed more than 1,200 employees after an audit of staff transactions, including personal M-PESA activity. Mwangi said the company would make such conduct audits a permanent practice, similar to performance appraisals.

Equity treated receiving money from customers as grounds for dismissal, a conflict-of-interest test wider than outright fraud. Safaricom’s figure covers only cases it investigated as fraud.

Outside finance, Kenya Power dismissed at least 20 employees over irregularities in the year to June 2025, including three who colluded with guards and drivers in a diesel-theft scheme that cost it KES 207.6 million ($1.5 million).