One hundred and eighteen Safaricom employees lost their jobs for fraud in the year to March, the company has confirmed, a figure that is more than four times the 28 dismissals recorded in the year to March 2021. The numbers come from Safaricom's 2026 Sustainable Business Report, released at the company's Nairobi headquarters, and represent roughly 2% of its 5,648-person workforce.
The climb has been steady, not sudden. Earlier figures put dismissals at 95 in the year to March 2024, then 113 in the year to March 2025, before reaching 118 this latest period. Alongside the dismissals, three disciplinary warnings were issued, referrals to law enforcement doubled from seven to 14, and fraud was the top concern raised through the company's anonymous ethics hotline.
The stakes of insider misconduct at Safaricom are particularly high. Staff sit close to customer data, SIM registration systems, and the agent network that moves money through M-PESA, Kenya's dominant mobile-money platform. The company treats theft, falsifying records, and unauthorised access to customer call data as gross misconduct. "Our customers entrust us with their personal information, communications and financial transactions and expect our services to be secure, reliable and responsible," the report states.
Even as dismissals rose, Safaricom says the broader anti-fraud effort is producing results. Fraud incidents fell 82%, short of a 90% target, and the company recovered 46% of reported fraud losses. A shift from an investigation-led model to real-time detection also helped recover KES 953 million, about $7.4 million, linked to inflated agent commissions.
The report does not break down which roles were most implicated, does not value internal losses, and does not say how many of the 14 law enforcement referrals have led to charges. Those gaps leave some of the bigger questions still open.
Originally published by TechCabal.