The Director of Public Prosecutions has approved criminal charges against the chief executive officers of NCBA Bank, KCB Bank and Co-operative Bank, accusing them of failing to report suspected proceeds of crime tied to a Sh363.4 million fraud scheme.
The three executives face charges under Section 5 as read with Section 44(2) of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act. Prosecutors say the banks held accounts used to move funds allegedly stolen from First Assurance Investment Company Limited, and that the CEOs failed to flag suspicious transactions flowing through those accounts.
They are set to take plea before the Chief Magistrate’s Court on August 11, 2026, after the court issued summons.
The underlying theft case
The charges against the bank chiefs stem from a separate case the DPP filed on August 5 against Salim Mohamed Busaidy, a former nominated Member of the County Assembly. Prosecutors accuse Busaidy of stealing Sh363,420,459 from First Assurance Investment Company Limited, where he served as a director alongside Lamu Governor Issa Abdalla Issa.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Nora Otieno and Principal Prosecution Counsel Willy Momanyi told the court Busaidy carried out the theft between May 18, 2018 and April 30, 2024. He allegedly used his position as director, and his access to the company’s accounts at NCBA, KCB and Co-operative Bank, to withdraw the funds. Prosecutors further allege he forged the signature of his co-director on numerous company cheques, ranging from Sh150,000 to Sh350,000, presenting them as duly authorised to facilitate the withdrawals.
The DPP approved 120 charges against Busaidy after reviewing the evidence. These include three counts of conspiracy to defraud, two counts of stealing, 114 counts of making a document without authority and one count of acquisition of proceeds of crime.
Busaidy denied all charges when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Gethi Kibiru. The court released him on a Sh10 million bond with one surety of a similar amount, or cash bail of Sh3 million.
Why the bank CEOs face charges
Kenyan law requires banks to report transactions they suspect involve proceeds of crime. Prosecutors argue that the scale and pattern of withdrawals from the First Assurance accounts, spread across nearly six years, should have triggered reporting obligations at all three banks. The failure to report charge does not accuse the CEOs of the underlying theft; it targets an alleged gap in the banks’ compliance response.
The case lands at a pointed moment for Kenya’s banking sector. The country has remained on the Financial Action Task Force grey list since February 2024, and the FATF’s June 2026 review confirmed it stayed there. Kenya’s action plan with the FATF calls for more money laundering investigations and prosecutions, a target regulators and prosecutors have faced pressure to hit. On July 1, DPP Renson Ingonga met heads of the Financial Reporting Centre, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to coordinate exactly that push. Charging three bank chiefs in one case fits the profile of action Kenya needs to show progress on.
An awkward moment for NCBA
The timing carries extra weight for NCBA Group, which is midway through a landmark ownership change. South Africa’s Nedbank is acquiring roughly 66 percent of NCBA Group in a deal announced in January 2026. Holders of 79.9 percent of NCBA shares had tendered them by July 10, and Nedbank expects the transaction to close by the end of the third quarter, pending remaining regulatory approvals. Criminal charges against the bank’s chief executive, even on a compliance rather than theft count, add a variable that shareholders and regulators reviewing the deal will want resolved quickly.
Kenyan banks have faced this before
This is not the first time Kenya’s largest lenders have been fined or investigated over reporting failures. In 2018, the Central Bank of Kenya fined five banks a combined Sh392.5 million for failing to report suspicious transactions connected to the theft of funds from the National Youth Service. Standard Chartered Kenya, Equity Bank, Diamond Trust Bank, Co-operative Bank and KCB Group all received penalties in that case, after receiving more than Sh3 billion in NYS related deposits without flagging the activity. In 2020, the DPP fined the same five banks a further Sh385 million, citing inadequate systems for anti-money laundering compliance and customer due diligence.
Co-operative Bank and KCB both appear in that earlier list, meaning this is at least the second time in under a decade that either institution has faced sanction linked to reporting failures. KCB remains Kenya’s largest bank by assets, with Co-operative Bank and NCBA ranked third and fourth.
What happens next
All three CEOs are due in court on August 11 to take plea. The proceedings will test how far Kenyan prosecutors are willing to push individual accountability at the top of the banking sector, rather than limiting penalties to institutional fines. For NCBA specifically, how quickly the case moves, and what plea the bank’s CEO enters, could shape the final stretch of the Nedbank acquisition.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said it remains committed to prosecuting economic and financial crimes in line with the Constitution and the law.
