M-Pesa delays: Safaricom assures customer data is intact, no KRA integration

Safaricom has refuted claims that MPESA was down on Tuesday due to integration with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

Addressing the press, Safaricom Chief Finance Services Officer Esther Waititu dismissed rumours going around on social media regarding MPESA-KRA integration.

” Let me be clear that there was no integration. KRA themselves publicly stated that there was no integration that happened between M-PESA and KRA.”

Waititu added,

“These are two separate businesses and sharing of data is not permissible. Under the Data Protection Act, we can’t share data of our customers. “

She affirmed that the issue that led to MPESA downtime was fixed and that ‘the service will not experience problems going forward’.

"We cannot share your data with KRA," Safaricom Chief Finance Services Officer Esther Waititu dismisses rumours of M-Pesa, KRA integration during Tuesday downtime pic.twitter.com/IfozmBvccy

— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) January 12, 2024

M-PESA downtime

On Tuesday this week, MPESA subscribers were unable to transact during the mid-morning hours with users receiving messages saying ‘MPESA is under maintenance’ and others ‘M-Pesa is currently unable to process your request. Please try again later’.

The technical hitch caused inconveniences for individuals and businesses that rely on MPESA to make and receive payments.

The hitch was later fixed in the afternoon on the same day, allowing customers to continue transacting.

MPESA-KRA integration rumours.

However, while MPESA was down, a rumor started circulating online that the service was unavailable due to its integration with KRA.

KRA responded to the quickly spreading rumor on X, formerly Twitter, terming the integration story ‘fake news’.

At the beginning of 2023, the National Treasury revealed plans to track M-PESA transactions.

At the time, President William Ruto poked holes into the fact that Kenya had only 7 million taxpayers yet Safaricom’s M-PESA service had 30 million active users transacting millions of shillings every day.

When one X user claimed that M-PESA was down for KRA integration, the rumour quickly spread on social media causing concerns among subscribers, considering the government’s efforts to increase revenue collection.

MPESA services

MPESA is an innovative product under Safaricom PLC that allows subscribers to complete various transactions from the comfort of where they are. The product has a big market share in the mobile money transaction sector.

Users are able to pay for goods and services, pay bills for services like electricity, send and withdraw money, and buy airtime.

A technical disruption means millions of users are inconvenienced.

The government also relies on the service to allow Kenyans directly pay for services through the paybill number 222222.