Who owns Safaricom?
Safaricom is owned by Vodafone (the United Kingdom, NASDAQ: VOD) through its subsidiary Safaricom PLC.[1]
Vodafone owns 65.1% of Vodacom rather than all of it.
Vodacom owns 55% of Safaricom PLC rather than all of it.
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Safaricom PLC — Annual Report with Sustainability Disclosures for the year ended 31 March 2026, 10 July 2026. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Vodafone Group Plc via Vodacom › Safaricom reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom, Newbury
- Origin
- 🇰🇪 Kenya, Nairobi
- Founded
- 2000
- Category
- Telecom › Mobile › Mobile carriers
- Parent ticker
- NASDAQ: VOD
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About Safaricom
Safaricom is the mobile network that launched in Kenya with 17,000 customers and celebrated its 25th anniversary on 23 October 2025, by then serving more than 50 million customers. Beyond voice, messaging and mobile data it sells home and business fibre, cloud and hosting services. It also runs the Bonga Points loyalty scheme, introduced in January 2007, and the Skiza Tunes ringback service. In FY26 the Communications Authority of Kenya renewed its operating and spectrum licences for another 25 years.
Ownership timeline of Safaricom
Where Safaricom sits in Vodafone
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
- Vodacom (65.1%) · 9 brands
- Safaricom (55%) · 3 brands
- M-PESA (50%)
- Safaricom
- Safaricom Ethiopia (54.17%)
- Safaricom (55%) · 3 brands
Open the full Vodafone ownership tree →
See the full Vodafone brand portfolio (23) →
Other brands owned by Vodafone
Vodafone controls 23 brands on Brandtree, 22 of them in telecom.
Also in telecom
- Safaricom Ethiopia (2021)
- SMARTY
- Talkmobile
- Three UK
- Vodacom DRC (2002)
- Vodacom Lesotho (1996)
- Vodacom Mozambique (2003)
- Vodacom South Africa
- Vodacom Tanzania (2000)
- Vodafone Albania (2001)
- Vodafone Czech Republic
- Vodafone Egypt
- Vodafone Germany
- Vodafone Greece
- Vodafone Ireland
- Vodafone Portugal
- Vodafone Romania
- Vodafone Türkiye
Founded in the 2000s
- M-PESA (2007)
Other brands in mobile carriers, and who owns them
The 25 brands in mobile carriers on Brandtree belong to 15 owners. The largest is Maroc Telecom, with 5; Vodafone has 3.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Gabon Telecom | Maroc Telecom | 🇲🇦 Morocco |
| DIGI Portugal | Digi | 🇷🇴 Romania |
| C&W | Liberty Latin America | 🇧🇲 Bermuda |
| Tigo | Millicom | 🇱🇺 Luxembourg |
| by.U | Telkom Indonesia | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
| One NZ | Infratil | 🇳🇿 New Zealand |
| NTT DOCOMO | NTT | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Smart | PLDT | 🇵🇭 Philippines |
About the owner: Vodafone
Vodafone is a publicly listed company headquartered in Newbury, United Kingdom. Brandtree records 23 brands under its control, and it is listed as NASDAQ: VOD.
Vodafone Group Plc files an annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended 31 March 2026. The report describes operations in Europe and Africa, a 51% holding in the UK joint venture VodafoneThree, a 65.1% holding in Vodacom Group, associates including Safaricom, and a 50% interest in VodafoneZiggo that it announced in February 2026 it would sell.
🇰🇪 Safaricom and other Kenyan brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 59 brands that began in Kenya. 3 of them (5%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, Safaricom among them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Safaricom?
The parent company of Safaricom is Vodafone, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United Kingdom. Safaricom sits under Vodafone's subsidiary Safaricom PLC.
Is Safaricom Kenyan or British?
Safaricom originated in Kenya in 2000, but it is owned today by Vodafone, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom. So Safaricom is a Kenyan-origin brand under British ownership.
Is Safaricom still owned by Vodafone?
Yes. As of 25 October 2026, Safaricom is still owned by Vodafone. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Safaricom PLC — Annual Report with Sustainability Disclosures for the year ended 31 March 2026 — Safaricom PLC, Annual report, published 10 July 2026; retrieved 25 October 2026.
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