Dickson Otieno

Safaricom and Pesapal have just announced they are rolling out two ways to pay with M-PESA on Pesapal’s card machines: tapping your phone on the machine, and scanning a QR code that already carries the bill total. At a shop counter, you no longer have to type a till number or an amount into your phone. Only your PIN. Pesapal is an independent payment company, not part of Safaricom.

Dr Patrick Njoroge, who led the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) from June 2015 to June 2023, wants Kenya’s law to make M-Pesa and Airtel Money pay users a share of the interest their wallet balances earn. Today, the 2014 rules direct that interest to charity. Many Kenyans aren’t even aware that their money in mobile wallets actually earns interest. On 28th September 2026 he posted 11 comments on X on the draft National Payment System Policy.

“Kenya’s passport has dropped 52 places, from 68th in the world to 120th” That is the claim going round this week, and it is wrong. The 68th and the 120th readings come from two separate rankings, run by different people, that turn the same passport’s status into two different numbers. That 120th rank was published on 15 September 2026 by a site called passportreports.com, which also gives Kenya a mobility score of 75.