Ruto Claims No Kenyan Remains Blacklisted by CRB as Government Defends Credit Reform Record
President William Ruto has insisted that no Kenyan remains blacklisted by the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB), reaffirming his administration’s claim that millions previously listed as defaulters have been cleared and shifted into government-backed financial support programmes.
Speaking during a media engagement at the Kitui State Lodge on Thursday, 13 November 2025, the President said the government had “kept its word” by delisting borrowers who had for years been locked out of formal credit.
“There were more than seven million people on CRB. Is that true or not?” Ruto said, switching briefly into Kiswahili. “Today, there is nobody in CRB. We have removed them. We have transferred them to the Hustler Fund. The Hustler Fund today is lending money to two million Kenyans every month.”
The President framed the move as central to his 2022 campaign pledge to empower small-scale traders, informal workers and low-income earners who struggled to access loans under the previous system.
“It is a commitment I made, and I am willing to answer,” he said. “When I make a commitment, I keep it.”
Background to the delisting claims
President Ruto first announced a mass delisting exercise in July 2023, telling financial sector leaders that more than seven million Kenyans had been cleared from the CRB’s negative register. The decision was presented as a second chance for borrowers who had been labelled as high-risk and locked out of mainstream lending.
At the time, Ruto argued that the CRB framework unfairly punished struggling borrowers and needed structural reform.
“This is very important; four million Kenyans have been excluded from formal borrowing because of blacklisting,” he said during the 2023 briefing. “They have been left at the mercy of shylocks. We must change that model so that we do not make an all-or-nothing process.”
The government’s overhaul coincided with an aggressive rollout of the Hustler Fund, a state-backed digital credit scheme the President said would break what he described as the “cycle of financial exclusion”.
Government officials offer clarification
Despite Ruto’s latest assertion that “nobody” remains on the CRB, senior officials have previously delivered a more cautious explanation of how credit reporting works.
In July 2025, Susan Mang’eni, the Principal Secretary for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, clarified that Kenyans continue to appear in CRB records even after repaying outstanding loans. She stressed that a listing is not inherently negative, as CRB files contain both good and bad credit histories used by lenders to assess risk.
“Negative listings remain on record for up to seven years even after a debt has been cleared,” Mang’eni explained, adding that the system is governed by regulations designed to maintain transparency and accountability in Kenya’s credit market.
The PS also revealed that nearly eight million Kenyans had been negatively listed at one point, attributing the spike to severe economic pressures, including the COVID-19 pandemic, prolonged drought and global financial disruption.
Ruto touts wider reform achievements
During the Kitui engagement, President Ruto also defended his broader reform agenda, insisting his administration had made significant strides in housing, health and national savings.
“I told the people of Kenya I was going to implement a housing programme. Today, a housing programme is going on across the country,” he said, referring to the government’s contentious affordable housing initiative.
He further highlighted the overhaul of the national health insurance system, which replaced the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) with the Social Health Authority (SHA) under new legislation aimed at delivering what he described as “true universal health coverage”.
On pensions, Ruto claimed the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) had experienced historic growth since his government implemented higher mandatory contributions.
“I made a commitment that we are going to change our savings culture. Today, NSSF has collected twice the money they had collected in 60 years,” he said.
The President maintained that these milestones reflected a deliberate push to reshape Kenya’s economic landscape and ensure what he called “financial inclusion for ordinary citizens”.
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Ruto Claims No Kenyan Remains Blacklisted by CRB as Government Defends Credit Reform Record