Anyone who has bought anything in Kenya knows the request: nionyeshe message, show me the message. To prove a payment, customers hand over a phone showing an M-PESA confirmation that carries their full name, their number and, often, their balance. Safaricom's answer is M-PESA Jumbe, a second receipt that leaves those details out.
Capital FM reported the launch on 19 October. Safaricom's own name for the feature is Split Notifications, and Techweez reports that the operator published its FAQ and merchant terms on 6 July 2026.
What the Jumbe message shows
According to Techweez, the Jumbe SMS arrives alongside the standard one and carries the transaction code, the amount, the business name, the till number and the time. It leaves out the M-PESA balance, the customer's full name and the full phone number. The customer is identified instead by a JumbeID built from their initials and the last two digits of their number: Safaricom's own example turns Nancy Kamau, on a line ending in 74, into NK_74.
That is an alias, not anonymity. Techweez notes that a shop with regular customers can work out who NK_74 is, and that two customers can end up sharing an ID, which is why the transaction code still matters.
The part shopkeepers will notice
The second half of Jumbe moves the alert itself. Tech-ish reports that businesses on Lipa na M-PESA and Pochi la Biashara can nominate up to 50 people to receive payment notifications on their own phones, so a waiter, a fuel attendant or a shop assistant can confirm a payment without the owner being present. Nominated staff see the amount, the reference and the JumbeID, and cannot see the owner's balance, PIN, statement or transaction history.
- Merchants nominate recipients through the M-PESA Jumbe menu on *234# or the M-PESA Business Hub
- Each nominee must accept an invitation before any alert reaches them
- Only active personal Safaricom numbers registered on M-PESA can be nominated
- It runs on SMS and USSD, so a basic phone works
