Kenya's push to exit the FATF grey list: PBORA chief joins regional CFT training in Arusha

Senior government officials pose for a group photo at the Mount Meru Hotel, Arusha, in Tanzania after attending a high-level workshop on Terrorism Financing and Targeted Financial Sanctions

Kenya's push to exit the FATF grey list: PBORA chief joins regional CFT training in Arusha

NEWS / Fri, 06/26/2026 - 14:22

The Director General of the Public Benefit Organizations Regulatory Authority (PBORA), Dr Laxmana Kiptoo, participated in the second cohort of a five-day high-level workshop on terrorism financing and targeted financial sanctions, held from June 22, 2026, at Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha, Tanzania.

The workshop brought together representatives from PBORA, Kenya's National Police Service (NPS), and the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC). Sessions covered a broad range of strategic and technical subjects, including national security policy imperatives, the alignment of Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Targeted Financial Sanctions (TFS) frameworks with Kenya's Vision 2030, terrorism financing risk assessment, the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) standards on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and CFT, consequences of grey listing, and the mechanics of TFS compliance obligations.

The choice of Arusha as the venue was deliberate. Tanzania offers a directly relevant case study for Kenya: grey listed by the FATF in October, 2022, the country successfully addressed strategic deficiencies in its AML/CFT frameworks and was subsequently removed from the list. Kenya has picked some lessons from Tanzania's story.

Kenya was grey listed in February, 2024 following FATF's identification of several critical deficiencies: gaps in the effective prosecution of AML/CFT offences, inadequate regulation of public Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) and virtual asset risks, and weaknesses in beneficial ownership frameworks.

Since its grey listing, Kenya has moved decisively to close the identified gaps. In 2025, Parliament enacted the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism Financing Laws (Amendment) Act, consolidating the country's legislative response to FATF's concerns. The same year saw the passage of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, establishing a comprehensive regulatory framework for a previously underregulated sector. Kenya has now fully implemented 29 of the FATF's 40 recommendations.

PBORA's contribution to this national effort has been substantive. The Authority has adopted a risk-based monitoring framework targeting NPOs identified as vulnerable to terrorism financing abuse; a specific area of concern cited in the grey listing. It has also rolled out a nationwide AML/CFT sensitisation programme for the NPO sector, strengthening compliance awareness across the country.

These coordinated reforms across government institutions reflect the sustained, cross-agency effort required to satisfy FATF's standards and secure Kenya's exit from the grey list.