The restitution pilot began under a blue tent at Kibuye market.
A public board listed claim categories and queue rules: verified agent reserve shortage, misapplied repayment, recycled-identity refund risk and group-wallet journal mismatch.
No VIP queue.
No staff-family priority.
Mariam arrived early.
“Mama Atieno's family should go first.”
“No.”
“They opened the whole case.”
“And if we move them forward, everyone sees a connected family getting special treatment.”
Mariam did not like it, but she helped explain the rule.
Aisha remained recused from decisions on Mariam's kiosk. Njeri and an independent claims reviewer handled those calculations.
The first approved claim belonged to an Ahero agent whose reserve shortage, cash-route reduction and later restoration all reconciled. He received the verified difference with a receipt showing the source of restitution.
A customer with a repayment posted to the wrong borrower received a balance correction. The original incorrect line remained visible with a correction reason.
“Why keep the wrong line?” he asked.
“So tomorrow no one can pretend it never happened.”
The claims screen showed counts, not names: verified, paid, pending, appealed, rejected. People could see that the process was not secret envelopes.
Then Mariam's claim reached review.
Part of her KSh 72,000 reserve debit was legitimate recovery under the float facility. Another part was linked to the disputed stabilization sweep.
“So I don't get all of it?”
“No,” Njeri said. “Restitution corrects the unauthorized part. It is not a bonus.”
Mariam looked at Aisha.
Aisha said nothing.
Recusal mattered most when she disliked the result.
Another agent appealed a KSh 6,500 calculation. The reviewer gave him the formula and evidence list instead of arguing in front of the queue. Appeals had a seven-day window and their resolution time would be reported publicly. An appeal process without a clock could become another delay mechanism.
Then Mama Atieno's case became ready.
The system reversed the three post-death loans and calculated fee restitution.
The refund engine generated its destination automatically.
Aisha recognized the last four digits.
4811.
The recycled number.
“Stop.”
The engineer looked confused. “Original wallet number.”
“Original number is not the original person.”
Ruth stood up. “You were about to send my mother's money to a stranger?”
“We are not sending it.”
The engineer proposed a manual edit.
Aisha refused. A manual change could save one family while leaving the same bug ready for the next case.
They created an `identity hold` for any refund where the destination number had been recycled, then scanned the pilot cohort.
The queue continued for other claims. Mama Atieno's case did not become an excuse to stop restitution for everyone.
By day's end, twenty-seven claims were paid, eight awaited documents, five were on identity hold and one was under appeal.
The public board included rejected claims too. A rule looked more credible when it could say yes, no and not yet.
For people without receipts, the pilot allowed alternative verification through agent portal history, cash-route records and support tickets. Fairness could not depend on owning a perfect smartphone.
Ruth's estate verification was approved before the tent came down, but the payment remained on hold until the identity architecture changed.
Mama Atieno's refund was ready.
The pilot also exposed a documentation problem that had nothing to do with smartphones. One elderly agent had lost her printed receipt after rain damaged the kiosk. Reviewers reconstructed the claim using portal history, courier records and two support tickets. Aisha required at least two independent sources rather than declaring paper mandatory. The decision was added to the pilot guide so fairness did not depend on perfect record keeping by people already affected by the system. By afternoon, the queue understood that verification was strict, but not designed to punish anyone who lacked the company's preferred format.
If someone pressed the old button, it would go to the person who now owned her former SIM.