Safaricom fires 118 employees over fraud

Safaricom dismissed 118 employees over fraud-related offences in the financial year ended March 2026, up from 113 in the previous year, as the telecommunications company tightened internal controls to protect its operations and customer information.

The company’s 2026 Sustainable Business Report released on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, outlines the conduct that can lead to dismissal, including theft, falsification of company records, unauthorised access to customer call records, breaches of security and compliance rules, and criminal offences.

The report also shows that Safaricom issued three disciplinary warnings during the year and referred 14 cases to law enforcement agencies, up from seven referrals in the previous financial year.

According to the report, employees may face dismissal where their conduct breaches obligations under their employment contracts or amounts to gross misconduct.

The offences identified include:

Theft: Employees found to have engaged in theft may face dismissal under the company’s disciplinary policy.
Falsification of company records: Altering or fabricating company records is listed among the grounds that may attract dismissal.
Unauthorised access to customer call records: Accessing customer information without proper authority can trigger disciplinary action.
Security and compliance breaches: Employees who violate security rules, procedures or compliance policies may face dismissal.
Criminal offences: Conduct amounting to a criminal offence is among the grounds listed in the report.

Safaricom says disciplinary action is guided by its Disciplinary Policy and Procedure, with the outcome depending on the findings of the investigation and the nature of the misconduct.

The report outlines a process through which suspected fraud can be identified either through customer complaints or proactively through the company’s fraud management system.

Once a case is flagged, a manager or the Ethics and Compliance team investigates and recommends whether the matter should be handled informally or through a formal disciplinary process.

The investigation records and final reports are prepared manually outside the fraud management system before being updated once the process is concluded. Safaricom says investigations are tracked using password-protected spreadsheets accessible exclusively to the Ethics and Compliance team.

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After an investigation is completed, a summary report and supporting documents are forwarded to Human Resources for further action.

A disciplinary committee then determines the outcome in accordance with the company’s policy and procedures. Possible outcomes include a warning, dismissal or referral of a suspected criminal offence to law enforcement agencies.

Safaricom’s report identifies fraud as the most common category of concern reported through its ethics hotline during the 2025/2026 financial year.

The company reported an 82 per cent reduction in fraud incidents against a target of 90 per cent. It also recovered 46 per cent of reported fraud losses.

Separately, Safaricom recovered Ksh953 million linked to inflated agent commissions through monitoring and data analytics. The recovered amount was lower than the Ksh1.7 billion recovered in the previous year.

The company also said it monitored approximately 1.25 billion cyber intrusion attempts and investigated more than 130,000 security events during the financial year.