M-Pesa, Police and Slashing Grass….Oooh, and Liz

Back in June, I happened to send a considerable amount of money to a wrong number by mistake. And the recipient, being a wonderful Kenyan, of course withdrew it almost immediately and ignored all my overtures, including sending me back half the amount “kiundugu”. I called Safaricom Customer Care. Thirty five minutes later, I was still listening to endless recorded messages and adverts that make me recoil every time I see or hear a Safaricom advert. It was frustrating and emotionally draining. In all this, my friend tweeted them up, and guess what, I had to disconnect my yet to be connected customer call because I had an incoming call from………..Safaricom. Of course they conveniently informed me that the person had already “utilized” the money and there was not much they could do other than me going to the police and having them follow up. They quoted some Bill or Act  for me to the effect that they had no power to recoup the money and all that kind of legal gibberish that normally comes from companies when they want to tell you the risk is your own.  I decided I won’t go to the police because there was nothing they could do. I was right, at least up to now. But I am getting ahead of myself here.