A Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) report released on August 4, 2025, “Failing the Hustlers”, delivers a damning but necessary verdict on the Hustler Fund, a flagship initiative of President William Ruto’s administration.

The report, grounded in troubling statistics and sharp legal and policy analysis, offers only one logical conclusion: the Hustler Fund has failed to serve its intended purposes and must be either scrapped or re-evaluated.

Launched in November 2022 with promises of uplifting millions at the base of the economic pyramid, the Fund was marketed as a bold step towards inclusive financial empowerment of the youth.

Yet nearly three years later, it stands as a cautionary tale of political populism gone awry.

The numbers alone are alarming. KHRC reveals that 68 per cent of loans have gone into default, translating into billions of shillings unrecovered.

The Auditor General, in her 2023 report, had already raised the red flag with a 32 per cent default rate, yet the government persisted.

KHRC rightly argues that the Fund is structurally flawed beyond repair.

The 14-day repayment window is impractical for borrowers in informal sectors who lack stable income flows.

Furthermore, the absence of meaningful collateral requirements, proper loan recovery mechanisms, and structured financial literacy support ensures that borrowers are set up to fail.

It further notes that the Hustler Fund fails to offer financial products that meet the needs of diverse borrowers and lacks critical support services to promote entrepreneurial success among borrowers.

Perhaps more disturbing is the politicisation of the Fund.

According to KHRC, the Fund has devolved into a post-election reward system – a performative gesture designed to check off a campaign promise rather than address deep-rooted economic inequities.

If the Kenya Kwanza administration is sincere about empowering “hustlers”, it must abandon flashy but broken tools like the Hustler Fund.

A more transparent, participatory, and sustainable model of microfinance, backed by education and accountability, is the only way forward.

Scrapping the Hustler Fund would not be a sign of failure. It would be the first step towards honest, effective economic reform.