Media must be part of Kenya's fight against money laundering, expert says

Emily Mochama Specialist - Financial Crime Compliance explains a photo taken at Westgate terror attack. [Jonah Onyango, Standard] A financial crime compliant expert has said there is need for integration of media with various institutions with the media to form a robust team to fight money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. The expert also revealed that politicians are the biggest culprits in money-laundering, due to the large amounts of money they handle. The call comes after it emerged that media has been left out in fighting the above crimes yet it plays a key role in exposing them through reporting. "We developed our anti-money laundering guide for accountants in Kenya back in 2020 with the help of Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and GIZ," said Emily Mochama, chief compliance officer at Afriex Inc. She added: "Probably, we should be having a conversation maybe with ICPAK, Financial Reporting Centre Kenya(FRCK) and even the journalists to come up with a guide that will combine efforts and also see a more responsive approach to solving the big issues, which are money laundering, terrorism financing, from a journalist and investigative approach. So I think it's just a number of bodies combining efforts and not entirely on ICPAK alone." Mochama, who is also a co-founder at Diligence Advisory, said journalists play critical role in the common fight of money laundering and terrorism financing, need training and therefore there is need to combine efforts in working towards a common goal, which is even getting Kenya out of the grey list. "I think the journalists have an idea of how they go about their work, they are doing an amazing job but in terms of reporting and those obligations, it comes out as a grey area that ought to be looked at from a broader ecosystem and that is the reason for this training," she said. The expert said when it comes to the journalists, unlike other institutions such as the financial institutions, the accountants, lawyers are now coming up with their laws, but we don't have one that is governing the journalists in terms of their reporting. "'But we have the Media Council of Kenya in place, I believe there is more improvement to be done in terms of the safety of reporting, especially when it comes to investigative reporting and also have the political goodwill to have all these investigated to the very end and see the fruits of their hard work in terms of investigations," she said. Currently, the media industry is generally not designated as a "reporting entity" or "obliged entity" under the Financial Action Task Force(FATF) despite being crucial in fighting the two crimes. She spoke during a media breakfast training of business journalists on; Understanding Greylisting and Anti-Money Laundering for Effective Reporting, which was organised by ICPAK at their headquarters along Thika Superhighway. Last year February, Kenya was placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list for deficiencies in its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) systems. The greylisting mean it's under increased monitoring to address issues like lack of successful prosecutions and unclear strategies, prompting legislative action like the 2025 AML Act to meet global standards. Mochama also blamed lack of knowledge by investigating police officers on how to handle virtual assets related crime to the increase and poor handling of the related crimes. This is despite the rising digital asset financial crime in Kenya, with billions lost to crypto fraud. Kenya is the third largest consumer of cryptocurrency in Africa after Nigeria and South Africa. The increase in the crime, prompted the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) last week to form a special unit and implement training for investigators to fight it. President William Ruto on October 15, among others assented to the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Act, 2025 (Act No. 20 of 2025), which became effective on November 4, 2025. Mochama also blamed FRC for being slow in responding to lodged complaints about AML. "Currently, FRCK is handling cases lodged I think three to four years ago and maybe it could be due to lack of enough personnel," she said. Mercelline Maroma, head of public relations and corporate communications at ICPAK said there are many emails sent along ago to FRCK from the institute that have not been responded to till today. She said the training is just among many more planned next year starting January to empower journalists in reporting on AML and CFT and they will start issuing certificates for attendees.

Media must be part of Kenya's fight against money laundering, expert says

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