Safaricom fired 118 employees over fraud-related misconduct in the financial year ended March 2026, the fourth year in a row in which the number of staff shown the door for dishonesty has gone up, according to the company's latest sustainability report released on Tuesday.

The figure is up from 113 dismissals the previous year. Besides the sackings, the telco issued three disciplinary warnings and referred 14 cases to law enforcement agencies. The misconduct cited includes theft, falsification of company records and unauthorised access to customer call records.

Sh953 million clawed back from agents

The report shows Safaricom recovered Sh953 million in inflated commissions paid to M-Pesa agents, down from Sh1.7 billion the year before. The company credits closer monitoring and data analytics for spotting irregular commission payments, although the report does not directly link the recoveries to the staff dismissals.

Fraud was the most common category of concern raised through the firm's ethics hotline during the year, with cases flagged either by customer complaints or by its fraud management system. More than 5,600 people went through fraud awareness training.

  • Fraud reduction target: 90 per cent
  • Reduction achieved: 82 per cent
  • Share of reported losses recovered: 46 per cent
  • Staff at year end: 6,902, up from 6,777

SIM-swap fraud under the spotlight

The disclosures come as SIM-swap fraud continues to hit mobile money users. Interpol has reported that Kenyans lost about Sh491.6 million to SIM-swapping, with such cases rising sharply last year alongside the growth of mobile money.

Safaricom says its Single View platform, which runs 18 automated checks covering things such as roaming status, location patterns and device activity before a SIM is replaced, has cut fraudulent swaps by 65 per cent since it was adopted. The checks take the final decision away from frontline agents, who have in the past been targeted by fraudsters.

On cybersecurity, the operator said it monitored about 1.25 billion intrusion attempts and investigated more than 130,000 security events during the period without material disruption to customers.

Insider fraud a wider industry worry

Safaricom is among the few companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange that publicly disclose how many staff they dismiss for fraud. Lenders are also tightening checks: KCB Group's latest sustainability report shows it dismissed 60 employees last year, up from 34, as more transactions move online and insider-assisted fraud grows.

The same Safaricom report, covered separately by The Standard, puts the value the company says its operations created for society at Sh1.25 trillion.

Photos: Business Daily. Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.