A Kenyan customer has raised serious concerns about how mobile data and call minutes are charged, putting the spotlight on issues many users quietly complain about every day. According to Liankey Nyambura, her experience with Safaricom left her feeling cheated and ignored, prompting her to publicly demand an explanation and threaten legal action if none is given.
According to her Facebook post, Liankey arrived in Kenya on December 10 and bought an all-in-one bundle at the airport for 2,000 shillings.
The package included 17 gigabytes of data, 1,000 call minutes, and free WhatsApp and SMS for 30 days. She received a confirmation message shortly after midnight.
However, when she tried to make a call, it failed despite the minutes being active. Only after adding 100 shillings of airtime did the call go through. This raised her first concern about why the bundled minutes were not working as expected.
On December 13, she received another message saying she had no active data bundles. This confused her because she had spent most of her time at home using Safaricom WiFi.
Believing it was an error, she bought another bundle worth 3,000 shillings, which was meant to give her 40 gigabytes for 30 days. Although the money was deducted from her M-Pesa account, she did not receive a confirmation message showing the new data allocation.
Things became more frustrating on December 22 when she was informed that 50 gigabytes had already been used up. She said this did not make sense given her usage habits.
Over the next few days, she bought small daily bundles of 99 shillings on December 22, 24, and 25 to stay connected. On December 24, she received another message stating she had only 60 minutes left from the original 1,000 minutes.
This meant 940 minutes had been used, something she strongly questioned. She challenged Safaricom to provide call records to prove how those minutes were spent.
On December 25, Liankey bought yet another all-in-one bundle for 1,000 shillings, which included 8 gigabytes and 400 minutes. Once again, she relied mostly on WiFi at home. By December 28, she was told she had no active data bundles left. In just 18 days, she had spent a total of 6,297 shillings on data and minutes.
Photo of Liankey Nyambura the affected customer. Photo Courtesy: Liankey Nyambura (Facebook)
Liankey explained that she has WiFi at home, at work, and even at the reserve. She only uses mobile data briefly during lunch breaks or when away from home. This made the fast depletion of bundles feel unfair to her. She went as far as calling the *544# bundle system a con and accused the company of taking advantage of customers.
In her post, she tagged major media houses and national leaders, saying Kenyans are suffering in silence. She asked any lawyer willing to take up her case to contact her and said she is ready to campaign against the company if necessary. Her story attracted many reactions, with some people sharing similar experiences, while others advised her to check phone settings or understand bundle conditions.
Her complaint reflects a wider issue faced by many mobile users in Kenya. Reliable and affordable data is essential for daily life. When customers feel they are not getting what they pay for, trust is lost. Whether or not her case goes to court, Liankey’s experience has reopened an important conversation about transparency and accountability in mobile services.
