Safaricom clarifies automatic M-PESA deductions for Kenya’s health levy

Safaricom has clarified why some M-PESA users are seeing deductions from their wallets without being prompted to enter a PIN, attributing the transactions to pre-approved standing orders used to pay Kenya’s health levy.

The clarification follows a wave of complaints this week from customers who noticed money leaving their M-PESA accounts with no confirmation screen, a development that quickly fuelled fears of unauthorised access. 

Safaricom said the deductions were linked to payments to the Social Health Authority (SHA) and processed through a standing order feature called Ratiba.

“M-PESA Ratiba is a standing order that you set so that payments are completed without manual intervention. Customers can manage their M-PESA Ratiba standing order by dialing *334# or through the Ratiba Mini App on the M-PESA App,” Safaricom said in a statement to TechCabal and also shared on social media.

SHA contributions are mandatory and recurring, and M-PESA remains the main payment channel for millions of Kenyans. Any perception that money can move without explicit approval risks unsettling trust in the system at a sensitive moment in the rollout of the new health scheme.

Ratiba allows customers to approve repeat payments in advance so that future deductions run automatically. Once a standing order is set up, transactions are executed on the scheduled date without further prompts, including PIN entry. The PIN is required only during the initial setup.

Ratiba can be activated via USSD or inside the M-PESA app. Users choose the amount, frequency, and recipient, then approve the instruction. From that point, the system completes payments in the background until the standing order is cancelled or paused.

Beyond SHA contributions, Ratiba is used across a range of everyday payments. 

Customers rely on it for loan repayments to digital lenders, scheduled transfers to savings products, insurance premiums, subscription services, school fee instalments, and regular bill payments. The feature mirrors standing orders in traditional banking, adapted for a mobile money system built around instant transactions.

What appears to have caught many users off guard is recall rather than functionality. Two users told TechCabal that they do not remember activating a standing order for SHA, while two others claim they approved it during registration or onboarding and later forgot to deactivate it. 

“I set up Ratiba to avoid missing payments, but I honestly forgot about it,” said Paminus Migiro, a small business owner in Nyanza Province.