Safaricom refunds Sh10 million for failed KCPE queries

Safaricom has refunded more than Sh10 million to customers

Safaricom has refunded more than Sh10 million to customers affected by a technical glitch on the 22252 short code used to deliver Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results.

This comes following numerous complaints from users who failed to get their results through the short code that was charged at Sh25, which Safaricom blamed on its service provider, Challa Communications.

“On Wednesday, Challa Communications informed us of a technical challenge that meant customers who queried the system experienced delays in receiving the results,” said Safaricom in a statement.

Multiple times

“This prompted some customers to repeat their query and in the process some billed multiple times for each attempt. As a result, a total of 424,011 requests were affected.”

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Tuesday released the results early following additional investments in marking equipment. The 993,718 candidates could access their results by sending their index number to the code.   

“We have instructed Challa Communications to refund all of the affected customers starting this afternoon, targeting those who queried the system more than once, as well as those who may have been billed without receiving any responses,” said Safaricom.