Ruto: 10K Kenyans borrow from Hustler Fund kitty daily
By Nancy Marende, August 9, 2025President William Ruto has stated that 10,000 Kenyans borrow from the hustler fund kitty every day and repay their loans on time.
Speaking at State House during the Nairobi Economic Empowerment Programme on Saturday, August 9, 2025, he defended the Hustler Fund, saying it continues to transform lives by offering accessible and affordable credit to millions of Kenyans.
Further, he revealed that 26 million Kenyans are registered on the Hustler Fund platform, with a total of Ksh72 billion borrowed since its inception.
“26 million Kenyans have registered on the Hustler Fund in Kenya. Ksh72 billion has been borrowed through the Hustler Fund. Every day in the Republic of Kenya, 10,000 citizens wake up to borrow from the fund, and they pay on time,” he stated.
He noted that before the launch of the initiative, about seven million Kenyans had been blacklisted by the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB), but his administration ensured their removal to give them a fresh start.
Ruto criticised those dismissing the fund’s impact, particularly individuals who scoff at small loans of Ksh500 or Ksh1,000.
“Those saying Ksh500 or Ksh1,000 is not important because they are drinking tea worth Ksh1,000 don’t know that money can help Kenyans to put food on the table for many Kenyans,” he stated.
He accused critics of being disconnected from the realities of everyday life, saying, “The people who do not know what real Kenya looks like are giving us lectures from air-conditioned offices and posh hotels in Nairobi about the hustles of ordinary people. They have no understanding of how real Kenya operates and how it is.”
“Ordinary Kenyans have saved Ksh5 billion on the hustler fund. Those are very serious Kenyans with a serious saving culture. Stop insulting the people of Kenya; you do not know what goes on in ordinary people’s lives,” he added.
Critics
This comes a few days after a new report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission has sharply criticised the Hustler Fund, describing it as a politically expedient but economically disastrous initiative that has failed to deliver on its promises of financial empowerment for low-income Kenyans.
The report, “Failing the Hustlers”, released on August 4, 2025, concludes that the Hustler Fund is structurally unsound, economically unsustainable, and politically manipulated, and recommends that the government scrap it entirely.
Launched in November 2022 with a startup capital of Sh50 billion, the Hustler Fund was marketed as a game-changer for the Kenya Kwanza regime’s “bottom-up” economic transformation agenda.
It promised to boost sectors such as agriculture, MSMEs, healthcare, housing, and the creative economy by offering accessible, affordable credit to millions of Kenyans locked out of the formal financial system.
However, the KHRC study found that this has not been achieved.