BY BUSINESS DESK.
A safaricom user has filed a complaint with Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) against mobile giant company over the recent M-pesa outages.
Martin Muiruri Ndung’u filed the complaint to Communication Authority of Kenya after the telecommunication company failed to respond to his letter asking the company to compensate M-pesa users with Kshs. 10,000 each.
“The telecommunication behemoth (Safaricom P.L.C) has contemptuously neglected to respond to our client’s initial dispute resolution proposal to admit liability for negligence regards the outages and to refund each M-pesa subscriber with the proposed reasonable amount of Kshs. 10,000 as outage credit,” he stated in the complaint.
According to complaint document seen by NairobiTimez.co.ke, Ndung’u wants CA to register a dispute against Safaricom for the benefit of all subscribers of M-pesa services pursuant to The Kenya Information and Communications (Dispute Resolution) Regulations 2010.
“Disruption of its mobile money transfer platforms (M-pesa) in April and July ,2017 and on 8.12.2018 (the known dates) – a technological and fiscal disaster which is in the public record,” says Ndung’u.
He claims the company gave unsatisfactory reasons for the outages whilst all that is required are services of international standard and best practices.
He argues that Safaricom moved Kshs. 1.5 trillion within three months between April ,May and June ,2018 (C.A statistics), and safaricom should be ordered to compensate each of its 24 million subscribers for it gross recklessness and egregious conduct.
He has proposed compensation for outage credit of Kshs. 50,000 per subscriber, an aggravated damage of Kshs. 1,000,000 per subscriber and exemplary damages of Kshs. 1,000,000 per subscriber.
He claim customers suffered inconvenience , embarrassment of remaining in darkness for Kenya Power token buyers.
Other subscribers were detained in bars, restaurants, hotels, petrol stations and other M-pesa recognized outlets for being unable to settle their bills.
He claims the company was holding the country at ransom by not maintaining a fast enough database response system and maintaining its system at a below par level considering its financial muscle.
He further argues that the outage put government to high risk of revenues and reputation, unnecessary disrupting the general economy of the country by adopting below per equipment resulting in the catastrophic effects witnessed during the outages.
