Safaricom has clarified that a message sent to some of its Home Fibre customers warning of an eight-hour internet outage was sent in error.

The alert, which began circulating on Saturday, October 11, 2025, informed subscribers that their fibre connections would be interrupted from Sunday, October 12, at 10:00 pm to Monday, October 13, at 6:00 am due to planned maintenance. It also stated that payment services would be unavailable during the same period.

“Jambo, we’re doing a Fiber service update on Oct 12 (10 PM) to Oct 13 (6 AM). Your connection may be interrupted. Payment services will be unavailable. Thank you,” read the message.

However, on Sunday morning, October 12, 2025, Safaricom moved to correct the record after customers raised questions about the notice on social media. One user on X asked why the alert had not appeared on the company’s official pages.

In its response, Safaricom’s customer care team apologised, confirming the message was not an official communication.

“We are sorry the message was sent in error. Apologies for any inconvenience caused,” the company said.

Alert sparks confusion

The clarification eased growing confusion among customers, many of whom had prepared for a night-long internet disruption. No official maintenance notice has since been issued by the company.

Safaricom Home Fibre provides broadband internet through fibre-optic cables and serves hundreds of thousands of households across Kenya. The service has grown steadily as more urban and suburban homes shift to fixed connections for work, education, and entertainment.

The incident comes weeks after the telco carried out a major M-Pesa system upgrade that caused a brief suspension of mobile money services. Around the same period, its Fuliza overdraft platform also experienced a temporary technical hitch that affected repayments.

Although Safaricom frequently conducts planned upgrades to improve network reliability, the latest false alert highlights how sensitive customers have become to service disruptions, especially with more Kenyans depending on stable internet for business and daily use.