Safaricom Plc dismissed 118 employees following internal fraud investigations and recovered $7.34 million (KSh953 million) linked to inflated agent commissions in the financial year ended March 31, 2026, as the East African telecoms operator strengthens controls across its telecommunications and mobile money businesses.
The company disclosed this in its 2026 Sustainable Business Report, released on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, showing an increase in employee dismissals from 113 in the previous financial year.
The report also showed that Safaricom referred 14 cases to law enforcement agencies in the period, double the seven cases recorded in FY25, while disciplinary warnings rose to three from none in the preceding year.
The figures highlight the scale of the company’s internal enforcement activities as it seeks to strengthen financial crime prevention and digital trust across its business, including its M-PESA mobile money platform.
Safaricom said employees could be dismissed where their conduct violated employment obligations or amounted to gross misconduct. Offences identified in its investigations included theft, falsification of company records, unauthorised access to customer call records, security and compliance breaches, and other criminal offences.
The company did not indicate that the $7.34 million recovered through its monitoring activities was directly linked to the employees dismissed during the year. The recovery was specifically attributed to inflated agent commissions.
Safaricom said proactive monitoring and analytics helped identify and recover the funds, underscoring the role of transaction analysis and internal controls in detecting financial irregularities.
The disclosures come as Kenya faces heightened scrutiny of its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing safeguards following its placement on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. The listing has increased pressure on the country to address strategic deficiencies in its financial crime prevention framework.
Social engineering emerges as leading fraud threat
Beyond employee misconduct, Safaricom identified physical social engineering as the leading fraud vector targeting its subscribers in FY26, highlighting the risks facing customers as digital financial services expand.
The company said it deployed technical upgrades to strengthen fraud detection and protect customers against identity theft. These included security application programming interfaces (APIs) under Daraja 3.0 and real-time transaction monitoring under Fintech 2.0.
The measures are designed to improve the identification of suspicious activity across its digital and financial services ecosystem, where fraudulent access to customer information and transactions can undermine confidence in mobile money services.
M-PESA has grown to more than 41 million users, with 70,000 merchants on the platform, according to the report. Safaricom serves 71.56 million customers across Kenya and Ethiopia, including 57.9 million in Kenya and 13.6 million in Ethiopia.
The size of the customer base increases the importance of effective fraud monitoring, customer protection and compliance controls as mobile money becomes an increasingly significant channel for payments and financial transactions.
Safaricom said suspected fraud could be identified through customer complaints or its internal fraud management system. Once a case is flagged, a manager or the Ethics and Compliance team investigates and recommends whether the matter should be resolved informally or through formal disciplinary proceedings.
Investigations are tracked through password-protected spreadsheets accessible only to the Ethics and Compliance team. Investigation records and final reports are prepared manually outside the fraud management system before being updated after the process is completed.
A summary of the investigation, alongside supporting documents, is then forwarded to Human Resources, while a disciplinary committee determines the outcome in line with company policies and procedures.
Possible sanctions include warnings, dismissal or referral of suspected criminal offences to law enforcement agencies.
The process illustrates how Safaricom combines technical monitoring with internal investigations and disciplinary procedures to address suspected fraud involving employees and its wider operations.
Safaricom links digital trust to wider sustainability goals
Commenting on the report, Peter Ndegwa, group chief executive officer of Safaricom, said the publication outlined the value the company created across its business, communities and the environment, alongside areas requiring further action.
‘Our 2026 report reflects the value created across our business, communities and the environment, while outlining the work ahead: responding to rising energy demand, reducing value-chain emissions and strengthening digital trust,’ Ndegwa said.
Beyond fraud prevention, Safaricom reported progress in energy efficiency and waste management as it expands its telecommunications infrastructure.
The number of telecom towers relying on solar photovoltaic energy increased to 2,028 sites, while about 800 sites underwent battery and rectifier upgrades.
The company also reported recycling 100 percent of its network waste and 97 percent of its solid waste. It maintained a CDP A rating for climate change disclosures for the second consecutive year.
Safaricom’s workforce grew to 5,648 employees in FY26, comprising 2,844 men and 2,804 women. Women accounted for 49.9 percent of permanent staff, compared with 50.1 percent for men.
Women held 33.3 percent of executive leadership positions and 43.9 percent of senior management roles, according to the report.
The disclosures place employee accountability, customer protection and financial crime prevention alongside environmental performance and workforce inclusion in Safaricom’s broader sustainability agenda.