Safaricom breaks silence on speculated M-Pesa KRA integration
Safaricom PLC has rejected rumors suggesting the integration of its M-Pesa mobile money transfer service with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, amid a service disruption.
Esther Waititu, Chief Finance Services Officer at Safaricom, clarified on Friday that data sharing between the telecommunications company and KRA was not allowed under the Data Protection Act, as both entities are obligated to comply with its provisions.
“Let me be clear that there was no integration, KRA themselves also publicly spoke that there was no integration happening between M-Pesa and KRA,” Waititu affirmed.
Adding; “KRA is a separate business entity and Safaricom and M-Pesa specifically are different business entities and when you separate business entities sharing of data is not permissible. We are governed under the Data Protection Act, therefore we cannot share data of our customers.”
Safaricom’s statement aligns with KRA’s confirmation of the situation. KRA responded to a claim by a user, identified as X, who alleged that the integration of the two entities was taking place during a one-and-a-half-hour service outage.
“Kindly be advised that this is fake news,” KRA flagged the post on X.
Importantly, Waititu reassured Safaricom users that the disruptions caused by the extensive service outage, which impacted M-Pesa transactions and activities such as purchasing airtime, will not be expected to occur in the future.
“We recognise this was inconvenient for a lot of our customers, however, the issue has been resolved and services continue to run. We can assure Kenyans and our customers specifically that everything is fine and we do not anticipate any issues going forward,” she stated.
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Safaricom breaks silence on speculated M-Pesa KRA integration
