Paying at some Kenyan Tills now brings a second M-PESA text without the balance

Customers who pay at some Kenyan shops are getting a second M-PESA text message that does not show their balance. Safaricom calls the feature M-PESA Jumbe, or split notifications, and the shop, not the customer, decides whether it is used, Tech-ish and Techweez reported on 6 October 2026.

Both outlets say Safaricom published the FAQ and the merchant terms for it on 6 July 2026. TechTrendsKE wrote about Jumbe on 4 October.

The Jumbe receipt carries the transaction code, the amount, the business name, the Till number, and the date and time, Techweez reported. A Till is the number a shop uses to receive M-PESA payments. The receipt leaves out the customer's balance.

In place of the customer's name and phone number it shows a JumbeID. According to Tech-ish, the code is the customer's first initial, last initial and the last two digits of the phone number. In Safaricom's example, as given by Techweez, a customer called Nancy Kamau whose number ends in 74 appears as NK_74.

Only the shop can turn it on. Tech-ish wrote that the owner has to switch the feature on for that Till, and that only the account's main administrator can do so. Techweez reported that businesses can enable it by dialling *234# or through the M-PESA Business Hub.

Tech-ish wrote that Safaricom built the feature mainly for shop staff, and that an owner can nominate cashiers to get their own short SMS for each payment. Techweez said each alert shows the amount, the transaction reference and the customer's JumbeID.

Tech-ish reported that the feature covers Till and Paybill payments, and that Safaricom's terms reserve the right to extend it to other services, including Pochi la Biashara, an M-PESA product for small businesses.

TechTrendsKE wrote on 4 October that Safaricom has described customer privacy as a priority and says it safeguards customer data in line with its obligations and applicable law.