Safaricom—Kenyan High Court ordered Safaricom to disclose who accessed customer's data after company resisted for months
In Matey v Safaricom PLC [2026] KEHC 13624 (KLR), the High Court of Kenya ruled on September 18, 2026 that a Safaricom customer has a constitutional right to know who accessed her personal data, after the company resisted disclosure for months. Justice David Mburu ordered Safaricom to provide certified subscriber details, access logs, audit trails and disclosure records covering two phone numbers for the period March 2024-January 2025, within 21 days, citing Article 35 of Kenya's Constitution and the Data Protection Act. The court noted it could not compel production of records that do not exist or were lawfully deleted under retention policies. The ruling follows a separate, still-pending petition by the Law Society of Kenya against Safaricom, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and 42 other respondents alleging a systemic, warrantless data-sharing arrangement with investigative agencies.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Transparency | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.221 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.59)× agency (negligent ×0.5)
Evidence (1 signal)
High Court ruling details Safaricom's resistance to disclosing who accessed customer's M-Pesa and call data
Nairobi Exposed reported on the September 18, 2026 High Court ruling in Matey v Safaricom PLC, detailing how the customer had to litigate to learn who accessed her subscriber and M-Pesa data, and noting the ruling's connection to a wider Law Society of Kenya petition alleging systemic warrantless data-sharing between Safaricom and investigative agencies.