The tracking of bank transactions helped a State agency tasked with monitoring money laundering unearth illicit wealth worth $120.91 million (Sh15.65 billion) in the year to December 2025, reflecting increased use of financial intelligence in fight against economic crime.
Fresh disclosures from the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC), which is the country’s financial intelligence unit, show that suspicious transaction reports filed largely by banks triggered a wave of investigations that have led to the tracing and identification of the billions of shillings.
The intelligence was built from thousands of reports that banks and other reporting entities, such as real estate agencies and insurers, file with the FRC, including the weekly cash transaction reports (CTRs) that capture cash transactions above $15,000 (Sh1.94 million).
The flagged illicit deals triggered further probes by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) in the war against dirty money.
The FRC said the bulk of the Sh15.65 billion relates to proceeds of corruption, economic crimes, unexplained wealth and high-value public land.
“Unexplained wealth has been recovered. Restriction and preservation have been put on land pending recovery,” said the FRC.
In the leafy suburbs, five-bedroom villas with servants’ quarters sell easily for Sh100 million in cash, real estate agents say.
High-end residential property prices have shot up multiple times since 2010, with the Nairobi market emerging as one of the top performers in Africa.
Sales of luxury vehicles have also surged, with conspicuous spending not tallying with official records on income tax payments.
This points to illicit money flow from faulty trade invoicing, crime, corruption and shady business activities.
The Financial Action Task Force, the official global watchdog, has kept Kenya on its "grey list" of countries it considers high risk for money laundering and terrorist finance activities.
The seizures came in the year the FRC saw an 18.8 percent surge in suspicious transaction reports to 9,571, from 8,057 in 2024, driven largely by the banking sector—which accounted for 85.7 percent of the reports.
Lenders have formed a key cog, given that the bulk of the cash transactions ultimately end up in clients’ bank accounts.
The disclosures come against the backdrop of a 2025 Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) typologies report showing Sh6.38 trillion or about 91 percent of suspicious flows passed through banks in three years to 2023, underlining the sector’s central role in money laundering risks.
The typologies report also flagged increasingly sophisticated tactics, including the use of shell companies and structuring transactions to evade detection, with illicit flows involving Kenya linked to at least 21 countries.
The FRC receives reports on suspicious deals from reporting institutions such as banks, insurers, saccos, forex bureaus, mobile money operators, lawyers, accountants, casinos and betting firms, real estate agents and dealers in precious metals and stones.
Reporting entities must file cash transaction reports for deals above $15,000 (Sh1.94 million) and cross-border declarations for amounts exceeding $10,000 (Sh1.29 million).
They also submit suspicious transaction and activity reports on any dealings or behaviour, regardless of value, linked to crime, money laundering, terrorism financing, or potential illicit financial flows.
The information from the reporting entities forms the financial intelligence that is used to fight money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. The FRC receives and analyses the information to pick out patterns or trends that may indicate financial crime.
The agency says it enriches the reports with information from multiple other sources to produce “high-quality intelligence disseminations” used by agencies such as the DCI, the EACC, the KRA and the ARA in going after the culprits
“The centre analyses suspicious reports and other financial transactions reports from reporting institutions from which it disseminates financial intelligence to law enforcement agencies for appropriate action,” says the FRC in the latest report.
The FRC does not arrest or prosecute suspects, but it uses the intelligence reports from reporting entities and international financial intelligence units to connect the dots and feed leads to DCI, EACC and ARA to build watertight cases.
The latest report show the EACC was a key recipient of the 260 reports that the FRC shared to law enforcement agencies. The EACC received 72 such reports, all of which resulted in investigations that traced the Sh15.65 billion.
The KRA acted on 70 reports, completing investigations on 33 cases and raising tax assessments amounting to $4.56 million (Sh590.75 million) from which it has recovered $2.37 million (Sh307 million).
In addition, the DCI received 67 FRC intelligence reports, all of which triggered investigations.
The ARA, which focuses on tracing and seizures of proceeds of crime, handled 51 intelligence reports. The FRC says investigations are at different stages, with 31 cases advanced, two pending forfeitures in court and five already closed.
The FRC has been increasing the number of reporting institutions to step up the fight against illicit wealth.
