Kenya’s largest telecommunications service provider Safaricom on Tuesday marked 20 years since it commenced its operations in the country. 

Safaricom has managed to weather challenges in the telcos sector since its establishment in the year 2000 to become the regional giant offering an array of services via the mobile phone.  

Focus now shifts to what legacy projects the new CEO Peter Ndegwa will bring on board beyond the company's two decades of operations, that saw it come up with the globally acknowledged M-Pesa, the game-changing mobile money transfer service. 


Peter Ndegwa and event MC Yvonne Okwara.                               PHOTO/COURTESY 

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In its 20 years in Kenya, 'Safcom', as the company is fondly referred to, has grown to become a behemoth that offers call, mobile data, home firbre, loan, bill payment management among other services.

Subscribers and shareholders will be watching Ndegwa closely to see what inventions and innovations the company will realise under his tenure to see the company increase its revenues, especially through the tough times brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.    

To commemorate its 20th anniversary, Safaricom opted to reward its subscribers by temporarily launching new voice and data bundles.  


MCs Churchill, Yvonne Okwara and Abel Mutua.          PHOTO/COURTESY

The bundles dubbed Tunukiwa 20@20 allows subscribers to buy bundles of 20 minutes talk time combined with 20MB data at Sh20.

“The focus is on Safaricom appreciating and celebrating its consumers who are family for the last 20 years. The 20@20 offer is available to everyone on the network at 20kshs, making it accessible to all regardless of their pocket-size,” read a statement released by Safaricom.

And from Wednesday, one million Safaricom customers chosen randomly will receive free calls for up to 20 minutes daily for next 30 days and the selected subscribers will be notified via text.


Similarly, Safaricom subscribers who have been with the network for more than 20 years will get 20GB of data valid for seven days while 20-yer-old subscribers will get 20GB of data.

Safaricom has also aggregated all M-PESA services under a new USSD and subscribers will now access the whole M-Pesa menu by simply dialing *334# without going through the SIM toolkit.

Watch launch here: