Safaricom confirmed a major outage affecting its M-Shwari services, leaving thousands of users unable to access their money for more than 12 hours and sparking intense frustration across social media. The disruption, reported in the early hours of Wednesday, November 19, 2025, forced many customers to delay payments, abandon purchases, and vent online as the service remained inaccessible.
What caused the widespread M-Shwari disruption?
In its response to users on X, the telco acknowledged the failure and assured customers that its teams, together with partner NCBA, were working to resolve the problem. “Hello. M-Shwari services are currently unavailable due to an outage. Our partner NCBA is working closely with us to resolve the issue and restore services as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for any inconveniences caused and appreciate your patience,” Safaricom stated.
By the time the company issued the statement, customers had already shared hours of frustration. Many could not withdraw funds, access balances or make payments. “Now you people are taking us for granted. It’s time to withdraw everything in your Mshwari bla bla and forget about it,” one user complained. Safaricom replied, “Hello @staywks, sorry for the inconvenience. We are currently experiencing a technical challenge with M-Shwari services and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Our sincere apologies for any disruption caused.”
The outage also left some users stranded during important transactions. One customer shared their experience at a retail counter, writing, “Please, please! Notify your customers before your systems go for maintenance. Now I am stuck in a supermarket at the counter because of your inconvenience with M-Shwari. Work on this ASAP, I have bills to pay like rn.”
Have M-Shwari users faced repeated outages recently?
This disruption follows a similar incident reported on Friday, October 31, 2025, when customers remained locked out of M-Shwari even after Safaricom announced that services had been restored. Complaints continued into the night as users claimed deposits were not reflecting and balances remained unchanged.
“Hey Safaricom, I deposited money into my M-Shwari account yesterday and it’s still not showing up,” one customer posted. Another added, “You said the problem was fixed in the morning, but I still can’t access my funds. What’s happening?” A different user expressed deeper frustration, saying, “What’s happening with M-Shwari, nitalala njaa jamani.”
Safaricom later admitted that the October issue had not been fully resolved and that technical teams were still working behind the scenes. “Hey, we most sincerely apologise for the experience. We have noted the issue affecting the M-Shwari service. Please bear with us as we work to restore normalcy in the shortest time possible,” the company told one user.
The team added, “We don’t have a definite time frame; however, we will share an update once the issue is resolved. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.”
With two major outages reported within weeks, customers continue to demand clearer communication and faster restoration of services as M-Shwari remains a crucial financial tool for millions.
By Lucky Anyanje