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Lawyers targeted in abandoned cash mop-up plan
President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Charles Kanjama delivering his speech at Integrity Centre in Nairobi on July 13, 2026 during the African Anti Corruption Day.
The Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) plans to mop up idle financial assets held by lawyers on behalf of their clients, a move likely to stir a standoff over the estimated billions of shillings in unclaimed cash.
Proposals by the UFAA, seen by the Business Daily, seek to declare any assets held by lawyers on behalf of their clients for more than five years as unclaimed and surrender them to the State.
Lawyers act as custodians of deposits made in commercial transactions, sums involved in ongoing litigation, settlement payments and, in some instances, money held on behalf of clients in escrow accounts awaiting instructions.
“Assets held by advocates in the advocate’s client account which belong to a client and remain unclaimed by a client for five years are presumed abandoned,” the UFAA proposals, which are set to undergo public participation, state in part.
UFAA is banking on working with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) to implement the regulation if it becomes law, given the number and spread of lawyers across the country.
“We will implement it in conjunction with the LSK, requiring advocate firms to have a disclosure in their books of accounts on client accounts that qualify as unclaimed. In addition, we will carry out a compliance audit,” UFAA said in response to queries sent by the Business Daily.
The LSK, however, said it had not been involved in drafting the regulation and would therefore not be willing to support it, arguing that it would interfere with the relationship advocates have with their clients.
“I don't understand what those unclaimed financial assets mean because lawyers have their ways of engaging clients and following up when they are holding client funds. We don't need the assistance of the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority,” LSK President Charles Kanjama said.
“You cannot have a third party intervening in the advocate-client relationship, which is what would happen if the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority starts asking us for disclosures of that kind,” he said.
UFAA disclosed that it had no estimates of how much money lawyers could be holding in unclaimed assets.
The judicial system is estimated to have Sh6.3 billion in unclaimed cash bail and bonds.
Besides lawyers, UFAA is also looking to have payment service providers licensed by the Central Bank of Kenya, including Pesapal, Flutterwave, Direct Pay Online (DPO) Pay, iPay Africa and Cellulant, surrender unclaimed money to it.
Safaricom's M-Pesa, which is also a payment service provider, already remits funds unclaimed for more than five years under its other role as a savings/deposit product.
UFAA is also looking to have deposits for goods included among unclaimed assets. Currently, the Act covers deposits made for utility services such as water and electricity.
“Section 9 is proposed to be deleted and replaced with a section clearly including deposits for goods over and above deposits for utility services as unclaimed assets qualifying after two years of presumed abandonment,” reads the proposed Bill.
UFAA has lined up a raft of policy changes, including easing penalties and extending the dormancy period, in a bid to mop up idle resources in the country.
A survey conducted last year showed there were unclaimed assets valued at Sh394.9 billion yet to be remitted to UFAA, which has already received Sh126 billion in shares and cash.
Commercial banks are said to hold the largest share of unremitted assets, at Sh133.8 billion. The manufacturing sector holds Sh24.2 billion in unpaid wages, according to the survey, while universities have Sh8.3 billion associated with caution money deposited with the institutions by first-year students.
