The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has vowed to oppose a proposal by the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) requiring its members of declare assets they hold on behalf of their clients for more than five years.

The UFAA proposal wants LSK members to surrender these assets if unclaimed during a period of five years to the State.

“Assets held by advocates in the advocate client account which belong to a client and remain unclaimed by a client for five years are presumed abandoned,” the proposal says.

But in a statement LSK President Charles Kanjama said that the proposal is wrong and his members do not need help to manage these assets.

“Lawyers have their own ways of managing client's assets and as such we do not need the assistance of the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority,” said Kanjama.

“We will stand firm and ensure no third party interferes with the sanctity of advocate-client relationship which remains central to our practice.”

Lawyers are used to hold deposits in commercial transactions, money in ongoing cases, settlements and can at times hold money in escrow accounts where parties then give authority for it to be released.

UFAA had said that it would work with LSK to implement this regulation if it becomes law due to the number of members and reach the society has across Kenya.

The authority does not have figures of the value of assets held by lawyers on behalf of clients.

Data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the total value of unclaimed financial assets in 2024 amounted to Sh4.3 trillion which was a Sh100 million increment from Sh4.2 trillion recorded in 2023.

In 2022 the assets value stood at Sh3.9 trillion, Sh3.1 trillion in 2021 and Sh3.5 trillion in 2020.

In 2024, banks accounted for Sh3.3 billion in assets value followed by Information and telecommunications Sh778 billion, listed companies value stands at Sh85 million, Saccos accounted for Sh21.2 million and Insurance Sh17 million.

Between 2019 and 2024 there were 30,088 claims processed by UFAA amounting to about Sh2 billion.

UFAA is also seeking to have payment service providers surrender unclaimed monies by their members to them.

They want the providers to follow in the footsteps of Safaricom’s M-Pesa which already surrenders any funds held by them and is unclaimed within five years.