KENYA: Govt Fires Back at KHRC Over ‘Skewed’ Hustler Fund Report

Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Co-operatives, Wycliffe Oparanya, has issued a scathing rejoinder after a report revealed that the Hustler Fund had been losing billions since its inception in 2022.

Through a long-winded statement on Monday, August 4, Oparanya termed the report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) as “skewed, elitist, and politically motivated.”

The report, dubbed Failing the Hustlers, stated that for every Ksh500 borrowed from the Hustler Fund, Ksh340 had been lost, with KHRC faulting the financial mechanics of the fund as extremely flawed.

However, Oparanya, while accusing KHRC of not reaching out to the Ministry and the Fund’s management, noted that the report’s assessment period corresponded to the financial year 2022/2023, during which the Fund was established and was only seven months old by the end of the said financial year.

Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Wycliffe Oparanya speaking during the Cooperative Leadership Forum on June 5, 2025.

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Oparanya

Further, they accused KHRC of weaponising the 2022/2023 Auditor General’s report, noting that most of the issues raised in the report were not yet conclusive.

“Of critical concern is the attempt by the report to generalise the findings of the first month of the Fund period (between November 2022 and December 2022) to draw immature conclusions and recommendations,” the Ministry stated.

The report had further revealed that the Hustler Fund was launched in November 2022 with an initial capital of Ksh50 billion. At the time, it was tipped to provide financial relief for Kenyans at the bottom of the economic pyramid under the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).  

The Ministry’s response contrasted this, where it asserted that the report had falsely claimed the Fund was capitalised with Ksh50 billion. “The amount so far injected into the Fund is Ksh14 billion, which has been reinvested in a portfolio of over Ksh72 billion as of today,”  it stated.

KHRC, in its report, also estimated that 71.5 per cent of all loans  under the Hustler Fund were functionally unrecoverable. According to its analysis, with an alleged 71.5 per cent unrecoverable rate,  taxpayers have allegedly absorbed losses of more than Ksh50 million daily.

Oparanya, in response, noted that the Fund had established the credit histories of over 26 million beneficiaries, adding that over nine million people borrow regularly from the Fund.

Further, he dispelled claims that the Fund was not accessible to Kenyans, emphasising that through the USSD *254#, Kenyans could access funds using either a feature phone or a smartphone.

The government also sought to clarify the borrowing limit, dismissing the report’s assertion that the limit was between Ksh500 and Ksh1,000. Oparanya noted that the personal loan product cited provides limits of up to Ksh50,000.

President William Ruto interacting with traders during the Hustler Fund anniversary in Nairobi on November 29, 2023.

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Source: Kenyans.co.ke | Continue to Full Story…