Safaricom PLC has officially introduced nine new mobile phone number prefixes—0118, 0119, 0140, 0141, 0142, 0143, 0180, 0181, and 0182—unlocking institutional capacity for up to nine million additional subscriber lines across Kenya.
The new number blocks became available to the public on August 10, 2026, accessible through Safaricom retail shops and accredited dealer outlets nationwide. Subscribers receiving calls or M-Pesa transactions originating from these new number ranges do not need to treat them as foreign or suspicious, as they represent standard local lines operating under the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) unified numbering framework.
The expansion reflects sustained growth in local telecommunications demand. Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya indicates that Safaricom’s active mobile subscriptions reached 57.9 million in the first quarter of 2026, following a quarter-on-quarter addition of roughly 5.5 million new lines. National mobile penetration currently stands above 150 percent, driven by multi-SIM ownership where individual users maintain separate lines for personal use, data routing, or mobile commerce.
Each four-digit prefix block accommodates one million unique ten-digit telephone numbers. The move extends a structural shift that began in 2019 when regulators exhausted allocations within the legacy 07xx pool—a series that originated with Safaricom’s 0722 launch in 2001. After expanding through 0720, 071x, 079x, and 074x, the regulator opened the 01xx series, leading to Safaricom’s initial rollout of 0110 and 0111 in 2020, followed by 0112 through 0115 in late 2021.
Accompanying the rollout, Safaricom issued standard consumer protection guidance reminding customers to safeguard personal identification numbers and account credentials during new SIM activation. Existing subscribers require no modifications to their current numbers, and cross-network routing tables across regional operators have been updated to support seamless voice, SMS, and financial transactions across the new prefixes.
Every headline has a human face behind it that often gets forgotten. My goal is to dig beneath the surface of breaking news to tell the stories of ordinary people with dignity and grit.
