Customer accuses Safaricom of daylight robbery after allegedly losing KSh6,297 in data purchases

Safaricom PLC, headed by Peter Ndegwa, has once again landed in hot soup.

This time, it is not about M-Pesa money loss but alleged poor service and what a customer describes as daylight robbery linked to data bundle purchases.

Liankey Nyambura, a social media influencer, has taken to her Facebook page to publicly air her frustrations, accusing the telecoms giant of unexplained deductions, disappearing bundles and questionable usage records.

In a detailed account supported by screenshots, Nyambura says the problems began on December 10 when she landed in Kenya and purchased a KSh2,000 all-in-one data bundle at the airport.

According to her, the package included 17GB of data, 1,000 minutes and free WhatsApp and SMS for 30 days. However, she claims that on the same day, calls could not go through despite the allocated minutes, only working after an additional KSh100 airtime top-up.

Days later, she received messages stating that she did not have an active data bundle, even though she says she was largely at home using Safaricom Wi-Fi.

On December 13, Nyambura says she purchased another bundle worth KSh3,000, advertised as 40GB for 30 days. She alleges that while the money was deducted from her M-Pesa account, she never received a confirmation alert showing the 40GB allocation.

Further screenshots shared by Nyambura show repeated system messages warning that her data balance had dropped below 500MB, 75MB and eventually 2MB, followed by notifications that her monthly bundle had been fully depleted.

She maintains that this consumption does not reflect her actual internet use.

Nyambura also disputes Safaricom’s voice usage records. She says she received a message indicating that she had used 940 out of 1,000 minutes.

“It is like I spend all my time talking. I want Safaricom to prove to Kenyans how I used 940 minutes on calls and provide the numbers I called,” she wrote.

In a firm ultimatum, Nyambura stated: “I have given you Safaricom PLC, Safaricom Investment Cooperative S.I.C. 24 hours to explain.

“You have exhausted me with this data purchase that does not serve as you indicate.” She further alleged that *544# is “a con code used by Safaricom to steal from Kenyans,” while tagging Citizen TV and NTV Kenya to highlight the issue.

She claims that between December 10 and December 28, she spent KSh6,297 on data bundles and minutes despite having Wi-Fi at home, at work and in other locations.

Nyambura has threatened legal action and called on President William Samoei Ruto and other leaders to intervene, arguing that Kenyans are suffering under the current system.

Safaricom had not issued a public response to the claims by the time of publication.