Kenya’s Telecom King Is Losing Its Grip As Fed-up Users Flee To Rival
Safaricom, Kenya’s long-dominant telecom giant, has been considered untouchable for years, holding an iron grip on the market as the default choice for calls, data, and mobile money. But a quiet rebellion, driven by cost complaints and a generation of users who never swore loyalty to the green brand, is finally reshaping the market.
The numbers from the Communications Authority of Kenya show that in the first quarter of 2025, Airtel Kenya added 3.01 million new SIM card subscribers, a 13.96% jump that pushed its customer base to 24.5 million for the first time. Rival Safaricom grew by just 1.7 million, a 3.6% increase. This pushed Airtel’s market share to a record 32.2% in March 2025, while Safaricom’s share slid to 63.3%, its lowest level in recent years.
The shift is even more pronounced in mobile money, a segment Safaricom pioneered and long dominated with M-Pesa. M-Pesa’s share has fallen for six consecutive quarters, slipping from 97% in late 2023 to 90.8% in early 2025. Airtel Money, by contrast, more than tripled its share from just 2.9% two years ago to 9.1% over the same period.
By September 2025, Airtel Money crossed into double digits for the first time, hitting 10.3% as M-Pesa dipped below 90%. By the end of 2025, Airtel Money had climbed to 11%.
Key to this shift is price. Airtel has consistently undercut M-Pesa on transaction fees. Sending KES 1 K (about USD 7.70) to other networks costs KES 11.00 on Airtel, compared to M-Pesa’s KES 13.00. Withdrawing the same amount is cheaper on Airtel by two shillings.
On voice calls, Airtel charges KES 2.93 per minute, while Safaricom’s premium rate stands at KES 4.87. On mobile data, the gap is wider still: Airtel’s pay-as-you-go rate per megabyte is significantly lower than Safaricom’s, a difference that adds up quickly for heavy users. For a generation of younger Kenyans leading digital adoption, it’s a simple calculation as lower costs mean more money stays in their pockets.
In addition, the introduction of mobile money interoperability in 2022 lowered switching costs, freeing users from the network lock-in that once protected M-Pesa. Airtel capitalised with aggressive pricing, including lower fees and zero-cost transfers for certain transactions, while expanding its agent network through partnerships with retailers like Naivas. The cumulative cost advantage for frequent users has been tangible.
The data also shows Airtel users are not just signing up but staying on the line. Airtel recorded the highest average on-net call duration at 2.9 minutes, well above the market average of 1.8 minutes. Meanwhile, Safaricom’s average on-net call stood at just 1.6 minutes.
Across 2025, Airtel’s domestic voice traffic grew about 13.3%, faster than Safaricom’s 7.1% increase. By the fourth quarter, Airtel had gained roughly 1.4% in voice traffic share, while Safaricom slipped by just over 1.1%.
The growing threat has not gone unnoticed inside Safaricom. The company recently flagged rising competition as one of its top ten strategic risks, warning of market disruption from rivals. Yet it remains deeply reliant on M-Pesa, which now contributes 45% of total service revenue. Any sustained erosion in mobile money market share would hit the bottom line directly.
For a generation of younger Kenyans who did not grow up in the M-Pesa era, the decision is increasingly becoming a simple calculation of cost and value. And for the first time in Kenya’s telecom history, the number two is finally making that calculation favour them.
Feature Image Credits: HRW
