Safaricom confirms M-PESA outage after users report hour-long service disruption

Safaricom has announced that M-PESA, its popular mobile money platform, experienced a significant outage early Tuesday morning, August 25, 2026, leaving users unable to access the service for more than an hour, according to reports. The disruption was first noted by an X user, identified as @king__davie, who tweeted at 2:53 am that M-PESA had been down for an hour.

Safaricom confirmed the issue, assuring customers that technical teams were working to restore the service. The company stated it was aware of the problem and directed users to bear with them while they addressed the issue. However, Safaricom did not disclose the cause of the outage or the number of customers impacted. The outage prompted reactions on social media, with users expressing frustration over difficulties completing transactions during the disruption.

M-PESA is a cornerstone of Kenya's digital payments system, widely used for transactions ranging from money transfers to bill payments and service purchases. The incident follows recent reports of broader connectivity problems in the region, prompting Safaricom to encourage users to report network issues through official channels.

As of the time of reporting, Safaricom had not provided a follow-up statement confirming that all services had been fully restored or explaining the technical reasons behind the outage, urging affected customers to remain patient as they worked to restore normal operations.