Court quashes Safaricom's Bonga Points expiry plan

The High Court has quashed a public notice issued by Safaricom in October 2022 that introduced expiry dates on its loyalty programme popularly known as Bonga Points.

Justice Chacha Mwita at the same time prohibited the listed Telco from giving effect to the notice which purported to introduce expiry dates on Bonga points service of more than three years.

The Judge said once bonga points are awarded, the points become customers property and Safaricom ceases to have any right over them.

The customers as consumers he said, are entitled to the rights and privileges accruing from them.

Based on this, the Judge proceeded to issue a declaration that the public notice was a violation of consumer economic rights, making the decision unconstitutional.

"Safaricom has no right to change the terms and introduce new expiry dates on the already earned points including the one that was to be introduced and expire in January 2023," the Judge said.

He ruled that the notice was a threat to violate consumers' economic interests and violation of their legitimate expectations.

Safaricom had in October 2022 issued a directive informing its subscribers that all unredeemed bonga points will now be expiring after three years, meaning that those accumulated before December 31, 2019 will expire effective January 2023.

The loyalty scheme introduced in January 2007 gives subscribers one bonga point for every Sh10 spent on the Safaricom network on voice, mobile data and SMS, and for every Sh100 spent on the network for M-Pesa transactions.

What followed was a suit being filed in court by Nakuru-based surgeon Dr Benjamin Gikenyi.

Gikenyi in his court papers accused the Telco, Communications Authority of Kenya and AG (respondents) of introducing expiry dates of Bonga points without input from subscribers. He said the announcement caught the public unawares.

The action by Safaricom he said would affect over 40 million of its subscribers and over Sh4.5 billion worth of Bonga points were going to be lost by January 1 last year.

Safaricom on the other hand argued that customers participating in the scheme consented to and accepted to be bound by the terms and conditions of the loyal program.

They said the bonga points scheme was not mandatory and customers may choose to opt out.