Airtel Money Kenya CEO Anne Kinuthia-Otieno Joins Visa

In Short

• Anne Kinuthia-Otieno is leaving her role as founding CEO of Airtel Money Kenya.
• She will join Visa as vice-president and regional manager for East Africa.
• Under her tenure, Airtel Money Kenya’s market share rose to 10.9% and subscribers grew to about 5.8 million by March 2026.

What Happened

​Airtel Money Kenya is changing leadership after founding chief executive Anne Kinuthia-Otieno accepted a new role at Visa.

Kinuthia-Otieno has been appointed Visa’s vice-president and regional manager for East Africa. The role puts her closer to card networks and cross-border payments, which is the movement of money between countries.

She became the first CEO of Airtel Money Kenya as a standalone business in 2022. This was a period when mobile money was already mainstream in Kenya, and competition was largely about pricing, agent networks, and how easy it is to move funds across providers.

During her stint, Airtel Money Kenya grew its subscriber base from 1.1 million in June 2022 to about 5.8 million by March 2026. Over the same period, its market share increased from 3.1% to 10.9%, according to the report.

The story also credits regulatory changes for supporting growth. One key push was interoperability, which means customers can send money between different mobile money platforms more easily, similar to how email works across Gmail and Outlook.

Why It Matters

Leadership moves like this often signal where the next battle lines are. For Kenya and the wider region, payments growth is shifting toward cross-border use cases, merchant acceptance, and tighter compliance.

Airtel Money Kenya’s gains also show that smaller players can grow in markets with a dominant incumbent, especially when regulators enforce interoperability and separation between telecom and financial services operations.

For Visa, hiring a mobile money executive is a bet on local payments knowledge. East Africa’s next phase is likely to be about connecting wallets, banks, and cards into simpler rails for consumers and businesses.