Puzzle of Sh36.2bn in unclaimed assets held in past 10 years

When Janet’s husband died in 2018, his family, just like thousands of others in the country, had no idea that he held shares in several listed companies, money market funds, mobile money wallets and several banks.

Although most of the respective financial institutions notified the widow of pending unclaimed assets by 2023, she has yet to receive a single coin from her late husband’s estate, several trips to Nairobi from Nyeri notwithstanding.

Last week, Janet told the Star that she was tired of stiff-necked bureaucracy around claiming the assets, adding that it had milked her of both time and financial resources, especially on transport.

Jared Kibande shares Janet’s sentiments, claiming that he has lost hope of following up on his deceased parents’ assets.

“The process must be simplified and awareness increased. It took us more than a decade to realise that the government was holding our parents’ assets in trust. It has taken us two years to follow up with no success yet,’’ Kibande said.

The slow process of reconnecting assets with their rightful owners has caused the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) to accumulate tens of billions, even as some families continue to suffer in extreme poverty.

Latest data from the authority shows that only Sh2.7 billion has been disbursed in the past decade out of Sh36.3 billion held in trust.

By the end of the last financial year, only six per cent of the assets had been returned to their owners, an improvement from 3.7 per cent in the same period the previous year.

The reconnection rate, while among the best in the continent, followed by South Africa at five per cent, is way below that of developed nations like the United States, where the reunification rate is around 20-30 per cent.

It averages 20, 30 and 15 per cent for Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan, respectively.

As the members of the public sulk over the slow process, the government is cautious about fraudsters who have, in the past, tried to forge documents to steal from families.

“It is our wish to reunite those resources with beneficiaries as quickly as possible. As the government, we have no business holding on to the money. We, however, shoulder the responsibility to ensure that absolute due diligence,’’ a senior National Treasury official told the Star.

The acting CEO and managing Trustee, Unclaimed Assets Authority, Caroline Chirchir echoes his remarks, adding that the authority has intensified efforts to make the process digitally secure and seamless.

According to the authority, many claimants, especially those following up on deceased relatives’ assets, only show up with the death certificate, hoping to be handed assets as soon as possible.

Chirchir said the authority is only conducting its mandate as outlined in the Unclaimed Financial Assets Act, 2011 and its regulations in 2016, with the sole goal of reuniting Kenyans with what is rightfully theirs and protecting these assets from unlawful practices.

For instance, for claims below Sh100,000, once a claimant provides the necessary documents, the money is disbursed to a National Government Administrative Officer in trust, to hand over to the family or beneficiaries of the deceased owner.

“This is like a lost and found box in a school compound. If a pupil misplaces an item, it is put in the box under the school’s authority. A parent, upon giving a clear description of the item, is handed the item. That is how UFAA works,’’ Chirchir said.

 Salome Kituku, a widow who has since claimed her husband’s assets, terms the reunification process as ‘a hell of follow-ups and begging’.

She wants the Parliament to review the law requiring claimants to obtain funds through lawyers, courts and trustees, saying she lost close to 30 per cent of the claimed assets to the process.

“I had to pay a lawyer to certify my documents and still pay something small to the local administrator. Why can’t the money be disbursed into the claimant’s account after following the due process?”

She also wants the unification processes to be slashed to a considerable number through technology to ease fatigue on those involved.

The authority’s CEO gave insights on various classes of unclaimed assets and processes involved, saying beneficiaries can now file claims via WhatsApp.

For original owners, they are required to complete Form 4A, fill an indemnity form, issue bank account details, provide a letter from a holder confirming remittance of funds to UFAA, a certified copy of ID and any other document deemed necessary.

When the owner of the assets is dead, in addition to filling Form 4B and filling an indemnity form, a beneficiary must also provide a death certificate, a copy of the certificate of confirmation of grant showing the asset being claimed, a letter from the holder and a duly certified ID.

To claim assets, individuals must file a claim with UFAA, which takes between 30 to 90 days to process.

UFAA noted that public disinterest and unresolved family disputes remain significant barriers to reuniting these assets with their rightful owners.

“We received about 8,000 claims in the financial year 2023-24. This translates to an average of 667 claims per month. The reports for the financial year 2024-25 are still being worked on,’’ Chirchir told the Star in an interview.

She commended financial institutions for remitting unclaimed assets on time.

Under the law, UFAA can impose a 25 per cent penalty on any entity that fails to surrender unclaimed assets. Additionally, penalties ranging from Sh7,000 to Sh50,000 can be charged for each day assets remain unremitted.

Companies surrendered 407 million shares and Sh3.8 billion in cash to the UFAA in the financial year ended June 2024, increasing pressure on the agency to return these assets to their rightful owners.

Data shows that while cash remittances fell by 15 per cent from Sh4.5 billion in the previous year, the number of shares nearly tripled, rising from 150 million to 407 million.

Remitting institutions comply by remitting unclaimed financial assets on or before November in line with the UFA Act, 2011.

The authority undertakes audits of holders to check on compliance levels and those institutions found to have defaulted are penalised.

The government is now leveraging technology to ensure security, transparency and seamless disbursement of unclaimed assets to owners.

According to the UFAA CEO, the authority offers a user-friendly online platform where individuals can easily search for their unclaimed financial assets by entering their name or relevant details.

The portal consolidates data from multiple financial institutions, allowing users to verify if they have unclaimed assets in one place, saving time and effort.

As of June 30, 2025, for the last financial year, 23,723 people were able to search the database through USSD technology, and 1,188 were able to search using the WhatsApp Chatbot solution.

“The uptake for the Chabot has been low; however, we are doing a business process re-engineering of the process around the solution, which will hopefully improve the user experience.”