Author: David Indeje

M-PESA no longer lives in a separate app. At Decode 4.0 in Nairobi, Safaricom unveiled My OneApp, a single platform that folds the standalone M-PESA app and the MySafaricom app into one experience, marking the most significant product shift the company has made since M-PESA launched eighteen years ago. Esther Waititu, Safaricom’s Chief Financial Services Officer, had opened by introducing Sarah, the company’s AI humanoid robot, to a room packed with developers. Sarah danced. Sarah waved. Sarah later walked Waititu to the edge of the stage before the session ended. The moment was deliberate. The day before had been full…

Jennifer Gatero’s new feature film opens at Nairobi Cinema on April 11, asking one question that cuts through every romantic relationship: when love breaks down, do you walk away or do you fight to find your way back? Back to Us follows former lovers Amana and Kwame, brought together on a coastal trip to Watamu by mutual friends. Old wounds surface. Unresolved feelings pull at both of them. What happens next forms the emotional core of a film shot almost entirely on location along the Kenyan coast. Why Gatero Set the Story in Watamu The film grew out of a…

Safaricom has moved beyond the idea of local innovation. At the close of Decode 4.0, the company unveiled Decode 5.0, formally titled De{c0}de 5.0: The Rise of Africa’s AI Supergrid, signalling a shift from building standalone products to laying shared digital infrastructure across the continent. The announcement reframes Safaricom’s ambitions. Rather than a single-market telco refining its own platforms, the company now positions itself as the backbone of a connected African technology ecosystem, one that developers, businesses, and governments can build on together. Eight Markets, One Framework Decode 5.0 spans Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Lesotho, the DRC, Mozambique, South Africa, and…

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) assesses mobile network quality as a core consumer protection function. For FY 2024–2025, the Authority evaluated all three licensed operators — Safaricom, Airtel Kenya and Telkom Kenya — across every one of Kenya’s 47 counties. The framework, introduced in 2017, combines field tests, network data and customer surveys into a single weighted score. Crucially, the assessment is regulator-conducted, making it the authoritative measure of network performance in the Kenyan market. Safaricom scored 89.72% overall, achieved 90.36% in field drive tests, the highest figure recorded across all operators  and met the CA’s quality targets in…

Kenya’s manufacturing sector is sounding the alarm. Despite the promise of the African Continental Free Trade Area, logistics bottlenecks are undermining the country’s ability to compete across the continent. The warning came at the launch of a new Logistics Study Report by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, and the message was direct: opening markets means nothing if the systems connecting businesses to those markets cannot keep pace. “While markets are opening, the systems that connect us to those markets are not moving at the same speed,” said KAM Chief Executive Tobias Alando. “In many cases, logistics costs now outweigh the…

Africa does not lack laws. It lacks power. That distinction sits at the heart of the Tech Justice in Africa report, launched by the Global Centre on AI Governance in partnership with the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and supported by Luminate. The report arrives as artificial intelligence reshapes how millions of Africans access healthcare, find work, navigate government services, and participate in public life. Yet the systems driving these changes were built elsewhere, by people who hold the capital, own the infrastructure, and write the rules. The report focuses on Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa…