Kenya Moves to Expose Trust Ownership as FATF Grey-List Pressure Mounts

A new Trust Administration Bill would require trusts to disclose beneficial ownership information and register key details centrally, strengthening Kenya’s response to money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks.

Kenya is moving to tighten transparency around trusts as the country works to address weaknesses identified by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and secure removal from its list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring.

The Trust Administration Bill, 2026, currently before Parliament as National Assembly Bill No. 29 of 2026, proposes a new framework for the registration, administration and regulation of trusts. The Bill was first read in the National Assembly on 16 June.

A central element of the proposed reforms is greater visibility over the people who ultimately own, control or benefit from trusts. The proposed framework would require trusts to register and maintain beneficial-ownership information, giving authorities a clearer route to identify the individuals behind otherwise opaque legal arrangements.

The move comes directly against the backdrop of Kenya’s FATF action plan. Kenya has been under increased monitoring since February 2024, with FATF identifying weaknesses including beneficial-ownership transparency. FATF’s latest country assessment continues to rate Kenya as only partially compliant with Recommendation 25, which covers transparency and beneficial ownership of legal arrangements such as trusts.

For financial-crime compliance teams, the issue is significant because trusts can legitimately be used for estate planning, investment, charitable purposes and asset management, while their structure can also make it more difficult to establish who ultimately controls or benefits from assets.

The proposed reforms are intended to close that information gap.

Under the proposed framework, trustees would be expected to maintain accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial owners and provide the relevant information to the central register. Reporting on beneficial ownership would therefore become a more formal compliance obligation rather than an issue dealt with primarily through private trust documentation.

That could have implications beyond trustees themselves.

Banks, professional advisers, company-service providers and other regulated businesses that conduct customer due diligence on trust structures will increasingly need access to reliable ownership information. Where the person controlling a trust cannot be established, institutions may face heightened customer-risk assessments or additional due diligence requirements.

The reform also reflects a broader international push to prevent legal arrangements from being used to conceal illicit wealth.

FATF has strengthened its beneficial-ownership standards specifically to help authorities identify individuals who use companies, trusts and other complex structures to conceal money laundering, corruption, sanctions evasion and tax offences.

For Kenya, however, passing legislation is only part of the challenge.

The effectiveness of the proposed framework will depend on whether beneficial-ownership information is accurate, kept up to date, accessible to competent authorities and supported by meaningful enforcement when trustees or other parties fail to comply.

That is particularly important because FATF increasingly assesses not only whether countries have laws and regulations on paper, but whether those frameworks produce effective results.

Kenya has made progress on several elements of its FATF action plan, but remains under increased monitoring. FATF’s June 2026 update said Kenya had taken steps to improve its AML/CFT regime, while continuing to require further work under its action plan.

The Trust Administration Bill therefore forms part of a much wider financial-crime reform programme rather than representing a standalone change to trust law.

For trustees and professional advisers, the practical consequence is a shift towards greater transparency over the individuals behind trust structures. For banks and other regulated firms, it could provide another source of information when conducting KYC and beneficial-ownership checks.

For regulators and investigators, the objective is even more direct: make it harder to hide the person who ultimately controls or benefits from assets held through a trust.

Kenya’s effort to leave the FATF grey list will ultimately depend on more than the passage of the Bill. But closing gaps in beneficial-ownership transparency addresses one of the specific weaknesses identified by FATF and represents an important step towards strengthening the country’s AML/CFT framework.