Microsoft outage pushes Kenya’s banks onto WhatsApp and phone lines
Kenyan lenders and insurers lose email for more than 15 hours as a global server failure exposes how much they rely on one US provide.
Kenyan banks resorted to WhatsApp and phone lines on Friday following a global Microsoft outage that disabled their email services. Major lenders such as Equity Bank, UBA Kenya, and Stanbic Bank Kenya, part of the South Africa-based Standard Bank Group, instructed customers to contact them via phone or WhatsApp. Stanbic Bank Kenya directed customers to its Voice Branch call center or their relationship managers.
Standard Chartered Bank Kenya also acknowledged its email service being unavailable. The digital-only bank Loop and NCBA Group's digital bank went a step further, informing customers to reach out through phone lines and social media. None of these notices mentioned payment or mobile banking issues. Insurers were also affected, with Old Mutual Kenya apologizing to customers for losing access to email, and APA Insurance reporting losses from Microsoft’s SharePoint and OneDrive.
The disruption highlights the heavy reliance of Kenya's financial industry on Microsoft's cloud services, despite digital channel growth. Microsoft first reported mailbox issues around 9 PM Nairobi time on Thursday, attributing the problem to a large number of servers becoming unexpectedly unavailable. No cyberattack was detected.
The failure impacted 74 countries within an hour, with Microsoft stating service capacity had not yet returned to normal levels. UBA Kenya linked the disruption to Microsoft Outlook, while Equity cited a global service disruption without naming the company. The outage affected not only the banking sector but also other industries, with a Nairobi-based security company and a travel agency instructing clients to use phone lines and social media for urgent matters.
This is one of several Microsoft 365 disruptions this year, with previous outages in January, July, and August. Kenya lacks local alternatives due to a stalled $1 billion Microsoft and G42 data centre project, which would have provided a regional Azure cloud infrastructure. Currently, East Africa's live data-centre load stands at approximately 30 megawatts.
Written by urgent.news from TechCabal's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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