Predatory Lending Probe: MPs Summon Asset Financiers on 5 November Over Boda Boda Riders' PetitionPredatory Lending Probe: MPs Summon Asset Financiers on 5 November Over Boda Boda Riders' Petition
Key Highlights
- Kenya's National Assembly Finance and National Planning Committee will hear asset finance lenders on 5 November after boda boda riders petitioned MPs over interest charged on motorcycle loans.
- Committee chairperson Kimani Kuria says the committee has received 110 cases of alleged predatory lending and that some customers have paid three or four times the amount they borrowed.
- MPs are also examining weak disclosure of loan terms and repossessions made without proper notice, and could use Standing Order 191 to summon any lender that does not attend.
- Banks charged an average lending rate of 14.34% in August, so the committee's findings could test how far asset financiers sit outside the rates paid in mainstream credit.
Kenyan MPs will question asset finance companies on 5 November over interest charges on motorcycle loans, after a petition from boda boda riders who say they have paid far more than they borrowed.
The National Assembly Finance and National Planning Committee, chaired by Kimani Kuria, says it has received 110 cases of alleged predatory lending. The hearing will test whether lenders to Kenya's motorcycle taxi riders, whose income depends on the machine they are financing, charge within the law and explain their terms clearly.
What the committee says it has found
Kuria said some customers have paid even three or four times the loan amount. Borrowers have alleged that they paid two to four times the original sum without clear disclosure of the credit terms, according to the committee's account of the cases it has received.
The petition was filed by several boda boda riders. No specific lender has been named publicly, and no interest rates or percentages have been put forward by the committee, so the size of the charges that riders complain about is not yet established. The committee has also not given a filing date or a petition number.
The committee is looking at two other issues beyond the cost of credit: whether lenders disclosed loan amounts and terms adequately, and whether financed assets were repossessed without proper notice or the required procedures.
How MPs can compel lenders
If lenders do not attend on 5 November, the committee could invoke Standing Order 191 of the National Assembly to issue formal summons. It plans to complete its inquiry and table a report before the House.
Kuria said no lender should be allowed in Kenya to lend beyond or outside the legal framework. That framing points the inquiry at compliance with existing law rather than at a new cap on rates, although the committee has not said what it will recommend.
The rules that already apply
The Business Laws (Amendment) Act, 2024 brought non-deposit-taking credit providers under the oversight of the Central Bank of Kenya. The in-duplum rule also limits the interest a lender can recover on a qualifying non-performing loan to the outstanding principal.
In July 2026, the Competition Authority of Kenya warned that gaps in the framework for digital lenders expose borrowers to hidden fees and coercive debt recovery. Asset financiers are a different segment, but the concern the authority raised about disclosure and recovery practices overlaps with what riders are alleging.
How riders' costs compare with the wider market
Mainstream bank credit offers a benchmark. As Mwenendo earlier reported, commercial banks charged an average lending rate of 14.34% in August while the Central Bank Rate stayed at 8.75%.
Asset finance for motorcycles may be priced differently from bank loans, and the committee has not published the rates its petitioners were charged, so no like-for-like comparison is possible yet.
What the hearing can establish is whether riders received a written schedule of repayments, whether the total cost of credit was disclosed before they signed, and whether repossession followed the notice rules. Those facts will decide whether the cases are isolated breaches or a wider pattern in the sector.
What riders and lenders should watch
Riders with financing agreements should keep copies of their contracts, repayment records and any repossession notices, because the committee is examining disclosure and process as well as price. Lenders named in the petition will be expected to explain their charges and recovery practices in public on 5 November.
The committee's report, once tabled, will show whether MPs seek action through regulators or through changes to the law. Until then, the figures riders cite remain allegations that the committee has yet to test against lenders' records.
In Summary
- Who is leading the inquiry?
- The National Assembly Finance and National Planning Committee, chaired by Kimani Kuria, acting on a petition by several boda boda riders.
- What is being examined?
- Allegations of predatory interest charges on motorcycle asset finance, weak disclosure of loan terms and repossessions made without proper notice.
- When is the hearing?
- Asset finance lenders are to appear before the committee on 5 November.
- Where does the issue arise?
- Kenya, where the committee says it has received 110 cases involving alleged predatory lending.
- Why does it matter?
- The committee says some customers paid three or four times the loan amount, so riders' incomes and their motorcycles are at stake.
- How can MPs compel lenders?
- If lenders do not attend, the committee could invoke Standing Order 191 of the National Assembly to issue formal summons, then table a report in the House.