Nakuru residents left frustrated after day-long M-Pesa downtime

On September 11, I did something I hadn’t done in a long time: I paid in cash. It wasn't because I suddenly felt nostalgic; it was because a certain mobile money service that controls most aspects of my life just stopped working.

It happened over lunchtime at my favourite spot near the Nakuru Athletics Club. My friend and I were happily enjoying a perfectly cooked fish and ugali meal. When it came time to pay, however, things quickly went sideways. The payment wouldn’t go through.

We stood their awkwardly and “mathe” thought we were reaping her off.

“Angalia kwa simu yako kama message imekuja,” my friend said.

“Hakuna message imekuja,” she said.

We tried sending the payment again. It finally reflected after we had sent it twice, meaning we had paid double. Mathe had to refund us, but the embarrassment had already set in by then.

Later, I passed a supermarket on Kenyatta Avenue where the same chaos was unfolding. Imagine standing at the front of a long queue, only for your payment to fail. The people behind you glare as though you had come shopping without money, and the cashier has to put your items to one side while serving other customers. If you had cash, you were fine. Otherwise, you just had to wait and hope that the transaction would eventually show up.

While in a matatu heading to Sobea, the situation was the same but here we came across a conductor who thought that passengers wanted to make away with his hard-earned money.

“Nionyesheni message ukishatuma,” he said.

A woman from the back shouted, “Angalia kwa yako, tafadhali”.

The conductor interpreted this as defiance and became hostile,

“Sasa mbona nitoroke na 60 bob yako, ni kama kuna shida na hii  simu yangu” she stated.

By evening, the ripple effect was clear at my apartment block. Some neighbours were left in the dark because their electricity tokens had run out and they couldn’t top up.

Here is what others had to say.

@DrKendrick1: "MPESA itafanya nipigwe siku moja, unatransact mara tano without confirmation."

@JustEssiee: "Is it just me or are any of you experiencing delays with MPESA? You receive messages forcing you to pay a second time, thinking the first one hasn't gone through, and then hours later you receive the first message and realise you've made the payment twice or even three times."

@NGOT9: "Did a withdrawal and it's been 24 hours... nothing has been credited to my MPESA."

Lesson of the day? Always have a plan B!