First Reading

Draft provisions, consultations and appointments: read before a final rule exists, so operators know what is actually changing.

Opinion

SHOW! Safaricom Has Fixed One Kenyan Absurdity. Unfortunately, We Have a List.

Kenya built one of the world’s most sophisticated mobile-money systems, then somehow decided the best way to prove a digital payment was to hand a stranger your phone and let them inspect the evidence. Safaricom’s Jumbe finally makes that ritual less invasive. We applaud them. This was probably a mistake, because now that we know they can remove absurdities from everyday payments, wananchi have several more assignments.

Payments · 7 Oct 2026 · 17 min read

Opinion

If M-PESA Took a Week Off, Kenya Would Discover We Have a Problem.

M-PESA has become so reliable, familiar and deeply woven into everyday life that Kenya rarely stops to ask what happens if the bridge everybody uses suddenly closes. A hypothetical seven-day outage turns that question into a very Kenyan comedy of cash shortages, stranded payments and improvised solutions, while exposing a less amusing truth about what happens when an economy becomes too dependent on one payment rail.

Payments · 20 Sep 2026 · 10 min read