Editor's Review

The letter emerged online days after Safaricom refuted allegations of sharing information about people's location with the authorities.


The Media Council of Kenya (MCK) has denied reports of investigating Nation Media Group (NMG) over its reporting for the Safaricom data story.

In a statement dated Wednesday, November 6, the Council urged Kenyans to ignore a letter that was going viral on social media.

MCK maintained that the letter, purportedly revealing investigations against NMG, was fake and did not emanate from it.

"The Media Council of Kenya disowns the correspondence and fake news circulating about the Council investigating media houses. Please treat this with all the contempt it deserves." read the statement in part.

Safaricom headquarters in Nairobi.

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According to the fake letter, it was alleged that MCK was investigating the media house for misreporting the story on Safaricom sharing customers' data with the authorities.

It was also alleged that Broadcasting & Telecommunications PS Prof Edward Kisiang'ani was the one who made the formal request for the investigations.

The fake letter emerged online days after Safaricom refuted allegations of sharing information about people's location with the authorities.

In its statement, Safaricom noted that it can only share information with the authorities if a court order is issued on the same.

"In July 2012, Safaricom onboarded Neural Technologies to implement a Fraud Management System (FMS) on all our business lines, including our mobile money system," Safaricom revealed in its statement.

"Neural Technologies is a global brand operating in over 30 countries providing support to telcos and utility companies to prevent and detect fraud with no third-party access."