×
App Icon
The Standard e-Paper
Read Offline Anywhere
★★★★ - on Play Store
Download Now

The outrage of shopping with nothing but your phone, on a day of M-Pesa outage

Vocalize Pre-Player Loader

Audio By Vocalize

Widespread service outage disrupted M-pesa-related transactions on January 9, 2023. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

I was out and about early in the week, like most Kenyans, doing some shopping while armed with nothing but my phone.

Fortunately for me, I was in a locality where I know most traders by name, so they trusted that I'd pay for the goods offered when the Safaricom system was restored.

Premium Article

Get Full Access for Ksh299/Week.

Bold Reporting Takes Time, Courage and Investment. Stand With Us.
Continue Reading  →
What you get
  • Unlimited access to all premium content
  • Ad-free browsing experience
  • Mobile-optimised reading
  • Weekly newsletters & digests
Pay via
M - PESA
VISA
Airtel Money
Secure Payments Kenya's most trusted newsroom since 1902
By AFP 2 hrs ago
Sports
Man City rout Chelsea to close gap on leaders Arsenal
Sports
Inside the 19 counties set to decide Cricket Kenya's new leadership
Sports
Hail the new sheriffs in town: Butere and MGK retain titles as new champions are crowned
Athletics
Kamworor now dreaming big ahead of London Marathon