I'm not Kenyan, but South African, but have been to Kenya to look at mobile payments there. Are you sure about this?
My understanding was that M-Pesa started as a domestic remittance solution. Kenya doesn't have a well developed ATM network, so there was a great need for simple and secure domestic remittances (send money home to your family every week type use-cases).
The remittance solution replaced existing methods like sending physical cash with an "agent" (e.g. taxi driver) at high cost/risk or driving/walking very far to a bank branch.
Once the remittance use-case was established, payments was an easy addition, as there was already value flowing through the system.
My understanding was that M-Pesa started as a domestic remittance solution. Kenya doesn't have a well developed ATM network, so there was a great need for simple and secure domestic remittances (send money home to your family every week type use-cases).
The remittance solution replaced existing methods like sending physical cash with an "agent" (e.g. taxi driver) at high cost/risk or driving/walking very far to a bank branch.
Once the remittance use-case was established, payments was an easy addition, as there was already value flowing through the system.