Her confidence and willingness to seek out a new opportunity 24 years ago opened doors for Eunice Kibathi at Safaricom. Starting her career as a customer service agent, Eunice always worked with a single-mindedness to do the right thing and help out.
Her interests and energy aligned when the Safaricom Foundation was formed and she now works as a Programme Manager at Safaricom and M-PESA Foundations, doing for a living what she started out volunteering for, and helping transform lives. The Safaricom Newsroom spoke to Eunice as Safaricom counted down to its Silver Jubilee.
How did you join Safaricom?
My journey with Safaricom began on 5 March 2001 when I joined the call centre. It was my first formal employment. I was 21.
At the time, I was merchandising for Bio Foods at Sarit Centre, and I heard that a new company, Safaricom, was hiring customer care agents. I called my friend Brenda and told her, ‘Let’s go look for a job.’ So, we walked to Safaricom, and at the gate, we told the watchman that we were looking for the head of the call centre. We didn’t even know her name, but she was a kind lady who agreed to come down and meet us. Her name was Catherine Kiplagat, and I told her, ‘I’m looking for a job.’ She asked me, ‘Where’s your CV? How are you looking for a job without a CV?’ And I said, ‘Because I’ve been told you’re looking for people to hire, and I’m available for hire’. She then asked her PA to speak to us, and the PA told us to bring our CVs. The following day, we went through an interview process, and both got jobs at the call centre.
Did you have any formal training?
No. I only had basic computer skills, such as Word and MS PowerPoint. At that time, they didn’t focus much on what you were trained for because they planned to train us anyway. Remember, telecommunications and customer care were still relatively new in Kenya. We trained for about a month and a half, with extensive lessons on customer service, customer interaction, and product knowledge. Most of us had never seen a phone before. We used to hear about Siemens, Sagem, and Motorola. Sagem was one of the top phone brands. If you had one, you were considered well-off. So, we had a station with phones, and whenever a customer called asking about a feature on a phone, you’d run to the manager, pick up the phone, and actually speak to the customer while a phone was in front of you. It was a steep learning curve, but it was fun.
How was the company, and what was the vibe at the time?
The company was quite young, about six months old. We had fewer than 100 staff, because I recall you could even get a workstation back then. As a result, you’d find yourself in the same spot every day during your shift. We were a new group, with most of us inexperienced in many areas. Our team leaders, most of whom had telecom backgrounds, looked older but were very supportive. Initially, we often saw many wazungus in the call centre supporting us, because, as I mentioned, we were all still learning. Three or four months after the company started, I met Michael Joseph. He used to walk around at night, but we didn’t know who he was. Only later did our supervisors tell us that he was the CEO. He never spoke much to us. The first time I talked to him was perhaps about six months later. One night, he found me asleep at 3 am. It was a night shift, and there were no calls. It was never busy. He woke me up and asked if I was okay.
What was your most memorable call at the call centre?
That call has stayed with me to this day. I don’t remember the year, but it must have been early in my days at Safaricom because I was still on line 100. A call came through, and a lady was shouting and crying, with dogs barking in the background. I attempted to calm her down. She was frantically telling me to call the police because she believed thieves had broken into her compound. Her calling the call centre showed that she trusted someone would answer. She provided her location details, and I contacted the police, who responded in a record five minutes. They followed a trail of blood leading to the toilet. It turned out the house girl had had an abortion, but by the time they managed to break into the toilet, tragically, the child had died. That call lasted three hours, from 3 am to 6 am, and remember, you’re not supposed to stay on a call for more than three minutes. My manager even joined the call. Years later, that woman looked for me because she wanted to say thank you.
What was your own growth like as the company grew?
I worked in the call centre for about six years. I started on line 100, where I stayed for a year. Then I transferred to the Support Centre, which handles cases when customer care representatives cannot resolve certain issues and pass them to the support team. However, I didn’t enjoy it much, so I stayed there only six months before returning to the call centre because I found it more enjoyable. The Support Centre was more of a back-end operation and was a bit dull. I then progressed to line 200, which was a step up at the time. It was a sign of advancement because you stop answering calls on line 100 and move to line 200. On line 200, you deal with more prestigious clients; many politicians called in, making the calls more challenging because these clients knew exactly what they needed.
Then, 191, a directory service was introduced. I was lively and energetic, so I was often chosen for many tasks. In 2002, I was selected to go to Mombasa for three months to cover at the retail centre. Between 2001 and 2003, there were numerous sponsorship events, and I frequently volunteered; my boss asked me to coordinate some of these activities. During those years, I won the Passion for our People and Passion for the World Around Us awards for five consecutive years.
Your volunteering work laid the foundation for you to join the Safaricom Foundation formally. What kind of work were you doing, and how did people receive the foundation?
I joined as an administrator and spent 90 per cent of my time reading proposals. At that time, technology wasn’t at its peak, so they were hard copies. These proposals arrived in boxes, and I had to read them, summarise them for the trustees, scan them, and back them up.
The Foundation had already built a strong reputation, so we received around 200 authentic proposals each month. We held monthly meetings to present these proposals to the trustees, who decided which ones to fund. By the way, I tried for two years before I finally had the opportunity to join the Safaricom Foundation permanently in 2009. I then became a Foundations Officer, later advancing to the Principal and Programme Manager roles.
Tell us about your work during the initial stages of the M-PESA Foundation.
In March 2010, we obtained the licence for the M-PESA Foundation, but a decision had to be made about whether to keep both foundations separate or to combine the funds under one organisation. Our chairman at the time, Les Baillie, who is now the Executive Director of the M-PESA Foundation, instructed us to be clear about the source of our funding. For the Safaricom Foundation, it was from PLC, and for the M-PESA Foundation, it was from M-PESA’s interest. We had a significant amount of money in the bank, and I remember Michael saying, “What if we started a school? What if we had a state-of-the-art school that produced leaders, doers, thinkers?” That’s how the M-PESA Foundation Academy was established. I was responsible for the first two student admissions to the Academy. I travelled around the country searching for needy and deserving students. In our first year, we placed an advert and received over 10,000 applications. We recruited support from Starehe Boys and Starehe Girls teachers, along with other contracted staff, to help us understand what needed to be done. In 2015, we enrolled our first students, and we are pleased with the progress so far. Next year, we will celebrate our 10th anniversary, and I remain very interested in what is happening at the Academy.
What was the recruitment process like for joining the M-PESA Foundation Academy?
In the first year, we selected students who scored above 290 because we sought not only academic excellence but also talented individuals. To get the word out nationwide, we distributed application forms to school heads at the KESSHA annual National Conference, held in Mombasa that year. We also partnered with the Kenya Red Cross. Subsequently, about 20 Readers were contracted to review and filter the submissions, narrowing them down to meet our criteria. Initially, we reduced the applicant pool to 5000. After reaching that number, we organised interviews to evaluate leadership and communication skills, and the final step was assessing academic performance.
Tell us about Bob Collymore’s impact on your work.
I met Bob before he became the CEO. He used to attend Safaricom PLC board meetings as a board member and would request that his allowances be directed to the Foundation. He would ask us to select a project to support. We chose a project in Kibera called Kibera PALS. Every time he visited Kenya, he would request to be taken there. Some of the projects he supported, he never wanted made public.
In 2008, we started a project to build houses in Sugoi and allocated some funds to the Red Cross for this purpose, with Bob present at the handover. While in the area, we visited a lady who had about 9-12 children, all of whom were disabled. It was in a rural setting, and we were shocked to see that the children were caged. Her reason was that she couldn’t carry them all to the farm with her. I remember Bob approaching the cage, opening it, lifting the smallest child, and trying to talk to her. He didn’t mind that this little girl was dirty. He asked me, ‘What can we do?’ and, unfortunately, we couldn’t do much directly unless we returned to the Foundation for funds. You could tell he wanted to do more for this family. That’s the Bob I remember, the one who kept reminding us why the Foundation exists.
So, what has kept you at Safaricom for so long?
I’m very passionate about the community. The Foundation is not just a job; it’s my purpose. Every day, when I go to the field, which accounts for 90% of my time, I visit places like schools where students no longer sit on the floor because they now have desks. Seeing a woman deliver a baby with dignity, a thriving agribusiness project, or visiting the M-PESA Foundation Academy to see children I recruited from Kapenguria speaking English when they couldn’t before, all of this keeps me going. It gives me a sense of fulfilment and reminds me that there is still more we can achieve. I want to be part of that change.
As it turns 25, what’s your message to Safaricom?
Maintain the energy and remain innovative. Prioritise purpose over profit. I look forward to exploring more creative ways to support our communities and country. Happy birthday, Safaricom.
