Safaricom subscribers are now approaching the 60 million mark after Kenya’s mobile market recorded another sharp jump in active lines during the third quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year.
The latest sector statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya show that the country had 84.1 million active mobile subscriptions by the end of March 2026. That represents a 7.4% increase from the previous quarter and pushes Kenya’s mobile penetration rate to 157.7%.
The figure means Kenya now has far more active SIM subscriptions than people. This does not mean every Kenyan owns more than one phone. It reflects multiple SIM ownership, business lines, machine-to-machine connections, inactive replacement behavior and the way users move between operators for voice, data, mobile money and promotional offers.
Safaricom drove most of the latest growth. The operator added roughly 5.5 million mobile subscriptions in one quarter, lifting its total to 57.9 million. That gives Safaricom a 68.9% share of Kenya’s mobile subscription market.
The company is now within reach of 60 million subscribers, a major milestone for a single mobile operator in one national market. It also means Safaricom’s subscriber base is larger than Kenya’s estimated population was only a decade ago.
The latest numbers confirm two realities at once. Kenya’s telecom market is still expanding, helped by smartphones, mobile money, cheaper devices and essential digital services. But it is also becoming even more concentrated around Safaricom.
Kenya’s Mobile Penetration Reaches 157.7%
Kenya’s mobile penetration rate rose to 157.7% in the quarter under review. This is one of the clearest signs that mobile connectivity is deeply embedded in the country’s economic and social life.
A high penetration rate shows that mobile services are no longer optional. Kenyans use mobile networks for communication, payments, banking, business, education, entertainment, government services, transport, online work and access to information.
The Communications Authority attributed the latest growth partly to customer win-back campaigns by mobile network operators. These campaigns are designed to reactivate dormant users, attract customers who shifted to rival networks and increase SIM usage through promotions.
Cheaper devices and stronger network infrastructure also supported growth. As smartphones become more affordable, more users can access mobile data, apps, digital finance and online services. This is changing the structure of Kenya’s telecom market from one built mainly around voice and SMS to one increasingly driven by data, mobile money and digital platforms.
Prepaid subscriptions continue to dominate. This matters because Kenya’s mobile economy is still highly price-sensitive. Many users buy airtime, data and mobile money services in small amounts, making affordability and daily convenience central to competition.
Safaricom Pulls Further Ahead of Airtel
Safaricom’s 57.9 million subscriptions give it a commanding lead over Airtel Kenya, which remains in second place with 23.2 million subscribers and a 27.6% market share.
The gap between the two operators remains wide. Airtel has grown over the years and continues to compete strongly in voice and data pricing, but Safaricom’s scale advantage remains difficult to challenge.
Safaricom benefits from a powerful combination of network reach, brand loyalty, M-PESA integration, merchant payments, enterprise services, home internet, customer service channels and deep distribution across Kenya.
Equitel and Faiba remain much smaller players. Equitel, operated by Finserve, holds about 1.8% of the mobile subscription market, while Faiba, operated by Jamii Telecommunications, holds around 1.1%.
Telkom Kenya continues to struggle. The operator lost 160,464 subscribers during the quarter and closed the period with 584,438 mobile subscriptions. That gives it only 0.7% of the market.
Telkom’s decline is one of the clearest signs of how hard it has become to compete in Kenya’s mobile market without scale, heavy network investment and a strong digital services ecosystem.
Smartphones Now Dominate Connected Devices
Kenya’s handset market is also changing quickly. Mobile phone devices connected to networks reached 78.7 million by the end of March 2026, translating to a device penetration rate of 147.6%.
Smartphones now account for 63.7% of all mobile phones connected to networks. That marks a major shift away from feature phones, which once dominated Kenya’s mobile market.
The rise of smartphones has major implications. It increases mobile data usage, expands access to apps, supports digital payments, strengthens e-commerce and enables more advanced government and private-sector services.
For Safaricom, Airtel and other operators, smartphone growth creates new revenue opportunities. More smartphones mean more data demand, more app usage, more mobile financial services and more opportunities to sell bundles, content and digital products.
For Kenya’s wider economy, smartphone growth supports digital inclusion. A smartphone is not only a communication device. It is a banking tool, a learning device, a business platform, a payment terminal and a gateway to online work.
The decline of feature phones is therefore not just a consumer trend. It is part of Kenya’s broader digital transition.
Mobile Broadband Hits 62.6 Million Subscriptions
Kenya had 62.6 million mobile data and internet subscriptions by the end of the quarter. The Communications Authority says 84.4% of those subscriptions were on mobile broadband, covering 3G, 4G and 5G services.
The shift toward faster networks is clear. Usage of older 2G and 3G technologies continues to decline, while 4G and 5G subscriptions continue to grow.
Mobile broadband consumption rose to about 800 million gigabytes during the quarter, a 6% increase from the previous quarter. Average mobile broadband consumption also increased from 14.6GB to 15.1GB per subscription.
5G users recorded the highest average usage at 53.5GB per subscription. This reflects how faster networks change user behavior. When users get better speeds and lower latency, they tend to stream more video, download larger files, use cloud services, join video meetings and consume more online content.
Safaricom leads mobile broadband with 62.7% market share. However, that figure is slightly lower than the previous quarter, when it stood at 64.3%. The dip is small but worth watching because broadband competition may become one of the few areas where rivals can apply pressure.
Airtel has been aggressive in mobile data pricing, while Faiba continues to target data-focused users. As Kenya’s market shifts from voice to broadband, competition will increasingly depend on speed, coverage, pricing, reliability and device affordability.
Fixed Internet Is More Competitive Than Mobile
The fixed internet market tells a different story from mobile subscriptions and mobile money.
Safaricom still leads fixed data and internet subscriptions with 35.4% market share. However, its dominance is much less overwhelming than in mobile money or SMS.
Jamii Telecommunications holds 19.5%, Wananchi Group has 10.4%, and Poa Internet Kenya has 9.7%. Other providers such as Ahadi Wireless, Vilcom Network and Mawingu Networks also serve meaningful segments of the market.
Starlink remains small at 0.9%, but its presence is important because satellite internet adds a new form of competition, especially in underserved or remote areas where fibre and terrestrial wireless networks are limited.
Fixed internet is becoming more important as households, schools, businesses and remote workers demand reliable broadband. Fibre and wireless home internet providers are competing on speed, price, installation convenience and coverage.
This segment may become one of the most dynamic parts of Kenya’s connectivity market. Unlike mobile, where Safaricom’s lead is overwhelming, fixed internet has more visible competition and more room for challengers.
M-PESA Keeps Safaricom Dominant in Mobile Money
Mobile money remains Safaricom’s strongest area of dominance.
Kenya had 53.4 million active mobile money subscriptions by the end of March 2026. That pushed mobile money penetration to 100.1%, showing that mobile financial services are now central to the country’s economy.
Safaricom controls 89.1% of mobile money subscriptions. That is an enormous share in a financial services segment used by tens of millions of people.
M-PESA’s scale gives Safaricom a major advantage beyond telecommunications. It connects the company to payments, savings, credit, merchant services, remittances, business collections, bills, government payments and digital commerce.
This level of dominance also raises regulatory questions. In many markets, a company with such a strong position in both telecoms and financial services would attract close policy attention. The issue is not only market share. It is the importance of the service to everyday economic life.
For consumers, M-PESA remains convenient and widely accepted. For competitors, it remains the hardest moat to challenge.
Voice and SMS Still Show Safaricom’s Scale
Even as data and mobile money become more important, traditional communication services still reveal Safaricom’s scale.
Domestic mobile voice traffic reached 32.3 billion minutes during the quarter. Safaricom carried 20.99 billion of those minutes, giving it about 64.96% of total domestic mobile voice traffic. Airtel carried 11.27 billion minutes, or about 34.88%.
The remaining operators shared a tiny fraction of voice traffic. Telkom, Finserve and Jamii Telecommunications together accounted for less than 0.2% of total domestic voice minutes.
SMS is even more concentrated. Kenya recorded 13.98 billion domestic SMS messages during the quarter. Safaricom accounted for 13.14 billion messages, or about 93.96% of total SMS traffic.
The SMS figure is striking because messaging behavior has changed significantly over the years. Many users now rely on WhatsApp, social media, email and app notifications. But SMS remains important for banking alerts, verification codes, service notifications, government communication and business messaging.
Safaricom’s share of SMS traffic shows how deeply its network remains embedded in Kenya’s digital communication infrastructure.
What the Numbers Mean for Kenya’s Telecom Market
The latest CA data shows a market that is expanding but not balancing out.
Kenya is adding more mobile lines, more smartphones, more broadband subscriptions and more mobile money users. That is good for digital inclusion and economic activity. More people and businesses are connected to services that support payments, communication, learning, work and trade.
But the same data also shows that one operator continues to dominate most of the most important segments. Safaricom leads mobile subscriptions, mobile broadband, mobile money, voice traffic and SMS by large margins.
Airtel remains the only serious mobile challenger by scale, but the gap is still wide. Telkom is shrinking. Equitel and Faiba remain niche players. In fixed internet, competition is stronger, but Safaricom still leads.
For regulators, the challenge is to support continued investment while ensuring the market remains competitive. Kenya needs operators with enough scale to invest in modern networks, but it also needs competition that keeps prices fair, improves service quality and creates room for innovation.
Conclusion
Safaricom is now within reach of 60 million subscribers after Kenya’s active mobile subscriptions climbed to 84.1 million in the third quarter of the 2025/2026 financial year.
The company added roughly 5.5 million subscriptions in one quarter, lifting its total to 57.9 million and raising its mobile market share to 68.9%. Airtel remains second with 23.2 million subscriptions and 27.6% market share, while Telkom Kenya continues to lose ground.
The broader market is growing fast. Kenya’s mobile penetration has reached 157.7%, smartphones now account for 63.7% of connected handsets, mobile data subscriptions have hit 62.6 million, and mobile money subscriptions have reached 53.4 million.
But the growth story is also a dominance story. Safaricom continues to lead across mobile subscriptions, broadband, mobile money, voice and SMS. Fixed internet remains more competitive, but even there Safaricom holds the top position.
Kenya’s telecom market is becoming more digital, more data-driven and more essential to everyday life. The next question is whether that growth will create a more competitive market or further strengthen the operator already far ahead.
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