Kenyans can now breathe a sigh of relief as the High Court has issued temporary orders to stop the reintroduction of charges for mobile money and bank transfers.

The court issued the order after, a Nairobi resident filed a petition challenging the reintroduction of the charges by mobile money operators.

The petitioner, Moses Wafula, states that the reintroduction of charges of bank-to-M-pesa is a violation of his rights and that of other Kenyan citizens.

“The applicant contends that his rights and the rights of other members of the public have been violated, infringed and continues to be threatened by the 1st respondent book and the government of Kenya in view of the directive issued by the intend 3rd respondent on 6th December 2022,” reads court statement.

Mr. Wafula argued that should the court find that the M-pesa charges are illegal, more funds from the citizens will have been lost and it may prove difficult to ask banks to refund them.

The case will be mentioned on January 23,2023

Relief

The new charges were to start on January 1 this year.

On December, CBK announced that the charges were set to be restored from January following discussions between the CBK , banks and payment service providers with the groups pushing for the fee return.

However, the payment service providers and banks agreed to revise the maximum charges on the transactions following consolations with the CBK.

Furthermore, the charges were waived on March 16,2020, as part of the government’s emergency measures to facilitate the use of mobile money to contain spread of Covid-19.

Kenyans were happy to here of this as for some it was difficult for them to do their businesses, while others joked saying they can now transfer the money saved on M-shwari without charges.

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