Here is why you should never rely on the M-pesa reversal system.

Mpesa is Kenya's leading mobile money transfer service with over 15 million registered users and over two million transactions per day.
With such a huge transaction volume, it is highly likely that an erroneous transaction can occur,or conmen can easily use the system to rob unsuspecting users.
Initially Safaricom used to receive numerous complaints as a result of wrong Mpesa transfers, and in order to reduce such instances came up with a number of measures.
First was the Mpesa Hakikisha which displays the recipient's name and gives the sender a 25 seconds window to cancel the transaction in case the displayed name is not the one of the expected recipient.
But still there were a number of wrong transactions, and Safaricom came up with the SMS reversal which allows the sender to effect a reversal without having to call customer care.
We wrote a detailed article onw to Reverse wrong Mpesa transactions to individuals or to playbill numbers and we got a number of comments from our readers who failed to get their money back even after following the reversal procedure. Why?
First,the reversal can only be effected within 24 hours from the time of the transaction. After that, nothing much can be done about it.
Second, if the wrong recipient immediately uses the money or sends it to a wrong number, the reversal request will not be granted.

Once you forward the wrong Mpesa transaction message to  456, you will get a reply that the reversal request has been received and will get an update within the next 5 minutes.
However, if the recipient has already used the money, the second message will follow immediately that nothing can be done since the recipient has already used the money.

According to computer and cyber crimes Act 2018, failing to reverse an erroneous Mpesa transaction can land one to jail for two years or a fine of Ksh.200,000 or both.
But many erroneous Mpesa transactions are less that Ksh.1,000 and Kenyans being generous, don't feel good having to send someone to jail for such an amount.
To me however, the biggest let down are Safaricom themselves.
Once someone has lodged an official complaints, why not rewire any money that might be deposited in tht Mpesa number till the erroneous transaction is fully settled?
Better still, why not block that Mpesa number till the debt is fully settled?
Those are just my suggestions, but as for now, be very careful when sending money, or when making payments using Mpesa, since in case of a mistake, there's a high chance you might not get your money back through the Mpesa SMS reversal.
Also Read: How to top up Telkom airtime via M-Pesa