The Unclaimed Assets Trust Fund is sitting on ShSh6.06 billion, which is yet to be claimed by beneficiaries, according to its latest financial report.
This is an increase from Sh3.2 billion reported in 2014/15, according to a disclosure published by Unclaimed Assets Financial Authority board chairman Katwa Kigen (pictured) and CEO and Managing Trustee of the Fund Kellen Kariuki in a section of the print media today.
Majority of this, Sh5.87 billion has been invested in treasury bills. In the 2014/15 financial year, the authority disclosed it had invested Sh3.2 billion in treasury bills.
The treasury bills investment earned the fund Sh444.9 million in 2015/16 up from Sh87.1 million in the previous year.
The revenue reserve increased in 2015/16 to Sh532 million up from Sh87.1 million in 2014/15.
Early last year, UFAA started paying 1,700 claimants who had lodged claims for unclaimed financial assets with the Authority by November 1, 2015 as stipulated by law.
This followed the gazettment of Unclaimed Financial Assets Regulations, 2016, which were published in the Kenya Gazette on February 5, 2016 pursuant to section 53 of the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority Act, 2011.
Kigen, at the time, said the new regulations provided a legal framework for the Authority to finally begin paying claimants.
By close of June 2016, however, only slightly over Sh1.7 million had been processed and released to various claimants out of the Sh64.3 million worth of claims lodged by then.
Majority of Kenyans are not aware of how to claim assets of deceased kinsmen while others cannot be traced because the assets were invested or banked without their knowledge or indication of next of kin.
“People are still not aware that UFAA exists. We are going to do massive public awareness to ensure the monies gets to the beneficiaries,” Kariuki said last year.
The state agency was formed in 2012 following the enactment of the Financial Assets Act 2011
Some financial institutions have also been accused of not fully disclosing the amount of unclaimed assets they are holding.
Kariuki previously estimated the institutions could be holding up to Sh283 billion in unclaimed assets.
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