Kenya’s New NGO Terror-Financing Taskforce: What to Know

Kenya’s Interior Ministry has formally constituted a new multi-agency body to monitor non-profit organisations it considers at risk of terrorism financing, and every registered NGO in the country now falls within its watch. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen gazetted the Multi-Agency Co-ordination Working Group on Non-Profit Organisations at Risk of Terrorism Financing in a notice dated September 2, 2026, published in that week’s Kenya Gazette. For NGO leaders and compliance officers, the immediate question isn’t whether this affects you — it’s what it actually requires you to do differently.

What is the working group, and what does it do?

The group’s mandate, as set out in the gazette notice, is to coordinate “consultation, risk-based monitoring, sensitisation, information sharing and implementation of measures concerning non-profit organisations at risk of terrorism financing.” In practice, that means the taskforce will identify which charitable entities it considers higher-risk, share financial and operational information across the agencies that regulate NGOs, run sensitisation sessions for the sector on terror-financing red flags, and report annually to Murkomen on its findings.

It isn’t a single new regulator so much as a coordination layer stitched across bodies that already touch NGO oversight: the Ministry of Interior and National Administration (which chairs it), the Office of the Attorney-General, the Public Benefit Organisations Regulatory Authority (PBORA, which provides secretariat services), the Business Registration Service, the Registrar of Societies, the National Counter-Terrorism Centre and the Financial Reporting Centre. According to reporting on the gazette notice, the working group can also draft its own operating procedures, commission research, and co-opt outside institutions to help it work.

Why now? Kenya’s FATF grey-list problem

This isn’t a standalone crackdown; it’s the latest step in a compliance push Kenya has been under since 2024, when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed the country on its grey list of jurisdictions requiring increased monitoring for money-laundering and terrorism-financing risks. FATF has specifically flagged the non-profit sector as an area vulnerable to abuse, and Kenya’s regulators have been working to close that gap and earn removal from the list.

The working group builds directly on reforms Parliament passed in April 2025, which introduced anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations for NGOs, along with enhanced regulatory supervision and routine financial reviews administered by PBORA. It also follows May 2026’s directive ordering all NGOs to transition to the new Public Benefit Organisations (PBO) framework or risk deregistration — a deadline the ministry later extended by a year after widespread confusion over re-registration.

What should NGOs actually do now?

None of this changes an organisation’s legal obligations overnight, but it does raise the odds that a given NGO’s finances get a closer look. A few practical steps are worth prioritising:

• Confirm your PBO transition status with PBORA rather than assuming your old NGO Coordination Board registration still covers you.
• Tighten internal financial controls: separation of duties, documented approval trails, and regular bank reconciliations are exactly what a financial review under this framework will test first.
• Keep grant and donor records reconciled to specific projects, not lumped into general accounts — donor audits and statutory reviews increasingly expect this level of traceability.
• Brief your board on terror-financing risk indicators (unusual cash transactions, unverified beneficiaries, opaque partner organisations) so sensitisation sessions land on ground that’s already prepared.
• Watch for PBORA guidance on what “risk-based monitoring” will look like in practice — the working group’s own procedures are still being drafted.

Quick facts

Frequently asked questions

Does this mean my NGO is under investigation?
No. The working group monitors the sector generally and identifies higher-risk entities using risk criteria it is still developing; being a registered NGO does not by itself trigger scrutiny.

Is this separate from the PBO Act registration requirement?
No — it’s connected. The taskforce enforces compliance within the same framework created by the PBO Act and the 2025 anti-money laundering reforms, so an NGO that has completed its PBO transition is already ahead on this front.

Who do I contact if I have questions about my organisation’s status?
PBORA provides secretariat services to the working group and is the most direct point of contact for compliance questions, alongside the Registrar of Societies for older society-registered organisations.

Will this affect access to international donor funding?
Indirectly, yes — donors increasingly factor a country’s FATF status into due diligence, so Kenya’s push to exit the grey list is partly about protecting the sector’s access to international funding, not restricting it.

When will the working group’s specific monitoring criteria be published?
That hasn’t been announced yet. The gazette notice gives the group authority to draft its own operating procedures, so sector guidance is expected to follow in the coming months.

For more on the regulatory backdrop, see our earlier coverage of Kenya’s PBO Act 2026: What NGOs Must Do Now and Kenya’s Foreign Traders Directive: What NGOs Should Know, which covers a separate but related tightening of oversight on non-citizens and civil society this month. NGOs weighing how compliance costs affect their programming may also want to check 9 NGO Grants Open in Kenya This September 2026 for current funding options. For the international context behind Kenya’s grey-list status, see the Financial Action Task Force’s Kenya country page.

By the NGOs.ke Editorial Team.