Leaving Kenya for months: will my number and M-Pesa be recycled, and how do I keep them?

A Kenyan mobile number left unused while its owner is abroad can be given to a new subscriber only after three months with no calls, texts, data or top-ups, followed by three more months of notices. That is the procedure the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) set for all operators, in force since 19 September 2026. Using the line once in that time stops the process.

Under these steps, a resident who flies home in December and returns after Spring Festival, three or four months later, is back before the notice period ends, so the number cannot yet be recycled. M-Pesa is not covered by the guideline; it runs on Safaricom's own terms, set out below.

The CA is Kenya's telecoms regulator. The rules are in its guideline CA.G.520:2026, Procedures and technical safeguards for deactivation and recycling of inactive telecommunication numbering resources (Version 1.0), which applies to every service provider, including Safaricom and Airtel. Section 2 of the guideline says mobile numbers, beyond calls, messaging and data, are used for financial services and online authentication and act as digital identities.

Clause 4.1 lists the activity that counts: making or receiving a call, sending or receiving an SMS, using data, topping up airtime, or using the number for a value-added service. Three months without any of these starts the process.

The steps, clause by clause:

1. Trigger (clause 4.1): three months with no revenue-generating activity on the number.
2. Notice (clauses 4.2 and 4.3): the operator tries to reach the owner through the contact details collected at SIM registration, which may include an SMS to the number and the other contacts given then.
3. Notice period (clause 4.4): notification continues for another three months unless the owner uses the line.
4. Public list (clauses 4.5 and 4.6): 30 days before the notice period ends, the operator publishes the list of numbers that will be deactivated and recycled if they are not activated within 30 days. The general notice goes on the operator's website, in other media and in a national daily newspaper every quarter.
5. Deactivation (clauses 4.8 to 4.10): if the number is still inactive when the notice period lapses, the operator de-links and securely archives the previous owner's personal data, cached data and services, so that a new subscriber cannot reach or inherit them. The number then goes on a quarterly list to a central system and can be issued to a new customer.

For a line last used on 15 December 2026, the three-month mark falls on 15 March 2027 and the notice period runs to 15 June 2027, with the public list due in mid-May 2027.

To check a number, dial *106#, a USSD code typed into the phone's keypad. Public notices must carry this option, which shows whether a number is active, suspended, under recycle or deactivated (clause 4.7).

Individual warnings go only to the contacts given at registration. CA Director General David Mugonyi told the National Assembly's Public Petitions Committee that some customers give no alternative contact details when they register a SIM, the Kenyan tech news site Techweez reported on 8 October 2026.

For longer absences the guideline offers whitelisting. Under clause 5.5, any person, including a caregiver, can ask the operator to whitelist a subscriber's number when its owner may be unable to use it for more than six months. The request is made in person at the operator's office or shop, or through another secure channel the operator sets up, with the original identification documents of both the person asking and the subscriber, plus any supporting papers (clause 5.6).

The operator whitelists a number only once it is confirmed to be inactive (clause 5.7). Whitelisting lasts one year and can be renewed a year at a time, provided updated information is given and the number stays inactive (clause 5.8). A three- or four-month trip falls below the six-month threshold in clause 5.5.

M-Pesa has its own clock. Safaricom's M-Pesa terms provide for an account to be suspended when the SIM linked to it has been inactive for 90 days, and the account may later be archived and the number recycled, TechTrendsKE, a Kenyan technology news site, reported on 5 October 2026. A trip of three or four months reaches or passes that 90-day mark. Money held in an archived account is not lost, and the new holder of a recycled number does not inherit the old balance.

Safaricom began moving balances from archived M-Pesa accounts to their owners' active lines registered under the same national ID or passport number, with no claim form, the Kenyan tech site HapaKenya reported on 29 July 2026. The credit arrives with an SMS citing an "archived account adjustment". Customers who are not credited can contact Safaricom customer support.

Outside the operator's own systems, clause 4.9 has operators send the list of deactivated and recycled numbers every quarter to a central system that third parties use to update their records before calling or texting about obligations tied to a number. Clause 7.1 says provisions that need this central database take effect once the database is established. A former owner may still have the number registered with a bank, attached to online accounts or used for password recovery.

Recycled and newly issued numbers receive no marketing messages by default, and before recycling a number the operator must remove it from any business messages its previous owner had opted into (clauses 6.1 and 6.5).

"These measures are intended to prevent unfettered deactivation and arbitrary reassignment of mobile numbers," Mugonyi said, as quoted by the Daily Nation on 7 October 2026. He said the changes followed a constitutional petition filed at the Milimani High Court in June 2024. The measures had to be in operation by 19 September. The Public Petitions Committee is examining Safaricom's deactivation and reassignment of inactive numbers under Public Petition No. 24 of 2026.

Kenya had 88 million active mobile subscriptions at the end of June 2026, and Safaricom held 69.8 per cent of them, Techweez reported on 18 September 2026 from the CA's sector statistics for the fourth quarter of the 2025/26 financial year.