M-Shwari has confirmed a widespread system outage that left thousands of users unable to access the popular mobile savings and loan platform on Friday, sparking frustration and complaints across social media.
The disruption, which affected withdrawals, deposits and loan services, saw customers report failed transactions and error notifications throughout the day.
Many users said the downtime caught them by surprise.
Social media platforms were flooded with messages from distressed users, some sharing screenshots of repeated failed withdrawal attempts.
“Shen Ken” questioned, “I’m I the only one experiencing M-Shwari crisis, ama tuko wengi?” as she posted multiple notifications showing unsuccessful attempts to withdraw funds.
Another user, Lameck Kemosi, expressed his frustration after being stranded while trying to pay for transport using money stored on the service.
"Kidogo nitupwe nje ya gari juu yenu leo… You didn't even issue a notice about M-Shwari. You are becoming unreliable!!!” he wrote.
In response to rising concerns, M-Shwari acknowledged the technical issue, assuring customers that engineers were working to restore services.
“M-Shwari services are currently unavailable due to a temporary outage. Our teams are working to resolve this urgently. We’ll notify you once services are fully restored. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” read one response from its support team.
The platform later issued an official statement via its X (formerly Twitter) account, confirming a service-wide breakdown.
"Dear Customers, the M-Shwari service is currently unavailable. We are working earnestly to resolve this technical issue and restore the service fully as soon as possible. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused,” the notice said.
M-Shwari, a partnership between Safaricom and NCBA Bank, is widely used by Kenyans for savings and short-term mobile loans.
By press time, the company had not given a timeframe for full restoration, but assured customers that updates would follow once services stabilise.
