NAIROBI, Kenya, June 19 – Safaricom added about 5.5 million subscribers in the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year, cementing its dominance in Kenya’s mobile market as total active mobile subscriptions rose to 84.1 million.
Latest data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows mobile subscriptions grew by 7.4 percent between January and March 2026, pushing mobile penetration to 157.7 percent.
Safaricom increased its subscriber base to 57.9 million from 52.4 million in the previous quarter, giving it a market share of 68.9 percent and bringing it closer to the 60 million subscriber mark.
Airtel remained the second-largest operator with 23.2 million subscribers and a market share of 27.6 percent.
Equitel recorded 1.51 million subscribers, accounting for 1.8 percent of the market, while Faiba had 883,944 subscribers, representing 1.1 percent. Telkom Kenya’s subscriber base declined by 160,464 to 584,438, leaving it with a market share of 0.7 percent.
The Communications Authority attributed the growth to aggressive customer win-back campaigns by mobile operators, lower smartphone prices, expansion of mobile broadband networks and increased reliance on digital services.
The report also showed continued migration from feature phones to smartphones, with smartphones accounting for 63.7 percent of all mobile devices connected to networks.
Mobile broadband subscriptions reached 62.6 million during the period. Safaricom remained the largest provider in the segment with a 62.7 percent market share, although this was slightly lower than the previous quarter.
In fixed internet, Safaricom led the market with a 35.4 percent share, followed by Faiba at 19.5 percent, Wananchi Group at 10.4 percent and Poa Internet at 9.7 percent.
Safaricom also maintained its dominance in mobile money services, controlling 89.1 percent of the market as active mobile money subscriptions grew to 53.4 million.
The operator further led domestic voice and SMS traffic, accounting for 64.96 percent of voice calls and 93.96 percent of text messages sent during the quarter.
