In his first legislative intervention, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargey requested for a statement regarding the non-recovery of erroneously sent funds through mobile money transfer platforms like M-Pesa.
The Senator voiced deep concerns over the vulnerability of Kenyans who continue to lose hard-earned money due to inadequate tracing and reversal mechanisms by service providers.
Many Kenyans continue to lose money after erroneously sending funds to unintended recipients through mobile money platforms.
“In many instances, affected consumers are left to pursue the recipients directly, with limited support from service providers, notwithstanding the fact that the transactions occur on platforms owned, operated and controlled by those service providers, who also earn revenue from the transactions,” Senator Cherargey said.
He highlighted key judicial precedents, including Safaricom PLC v Kafwa [2023], where the Court affirmed that service providers owe a duty of care to customers regarding services on their platforms.
The legislator tasked the Standing Committee on Information, Communication and Technology, to report to the House the total number of complaints received by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) regarding unrecovered funds since 2020, as well as the current timelines and procedures used by Safaricom and other providers to freeze, trace, and reverse erroneous transactions.
“The ICT Committee should also inform the Senate the legal or operational limitations preventing real-time reversals and the measures and policies being formulated to establish mandatory escrow, freezing, or consumer redress mechanisms,” he submitted.
How many employees did Nandi County sack in 2024?
In his second statement, Senator Cherargey sought interventions from the Standing Committee on Labour and Social Welfare concerning the unprocedural revocation of appointments for over 1,800 employees by the County Government of Nandi in 2024.
The Senator noted that while some individuals successfully sought legal redress and were awarded compensation or reinstatement, a vast majority remain neglected despite a court ruling declaring the county’s actions a violation of fair administrative justice.
“In 2024, the County Government of Nandi unilaterally revoked the appointments of more than 1,800 employees following a human resource audit the reported irregularities were administrative in nature and were not attributed to the affected employees, but they nevertheless suffered the consequences,” he remarked.
The Senator demanded clear answers on the status of compensation for former employees who did not go to court but were equally affected by the unprocedural dismissals.
He requested the Labour Committee to find out the exact number of workers reinstated or re-employed by the County Government to date and the safeguards put in place to ensure future human resource audits do not unfairly punish innocent employees due to administrative errors.
