Safaricom sends message to customers by mistake

Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa (PHOTO: FILE)

NAIROBI, KENYA: A system error sent thousands of Safaricom subscribers text message on Monday prompting discussions on social media pages.

The message with the word ‘test!’ came from shortcode 44444. It was immediately followed by an apology from Safaricom asking subscribers to ignore the text.

“Dear Customer, Safaricom would like to sincerely apologise for earlier sending you a test message in error. Kindly ignore it,” read the apology.

Raila Odinga Junior on receiving the SMS posted a message on his Twitter account at 8.15 PM seeking answers from his followers on the weird number 44444 sending out a text. From the response, it was evident that his followers also received a similar message followed by an apology.

The number of active mobile (SIM) subscriptions by contract type and operator (Data: Communications Authority)