Principal Secretary in the State Department for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development, Susan Mang’eni, has dismissed the report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) on the viability of the Hustler Fund.

Speaking during an engagement on the ambitious project on a local TV station on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, Mang’eni stated that the research by KHRC was politically motivated and that the ministry was not involved in it at any given stage.

“We disown that report; in fact, from where we sit, it is very clear that, going by the title of that report, the motive behind the study, the conclusion, and the recommendation are politically motivated,” Mang’eni said.

‘Malicious and unprofessional’

The remarks add onto the PS’s earlier response to the KHRC report, where she termed it as malicious and unprofessional.

“The report by KHRC claiming the failure of the Hustler Fund is untrue, malicious, and unprofessional,” Mang’eni observed on August 4, 2025.

“This is a desperate attempt by such NGOs to solicit back their waning reputation after their recent sponsored self-abduction activities to bring down the current administration backfired on them,” she added.

“Hustler Fund is on course and delivered to Kenyans. We disburse daily an average of Ksh68 million on the personal loan product and Ksh27 million on the bridge product. More than 26 million Kenyans have benefited from disbursements amounting to Ksh72 billion, and over 9 million Kenyans are repeat borrowers,” Mang’eni stated.

KHRC report

The report by the KHRC 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 titled Failing the Hustlers, which was released to the public by KHRC on Monday, August 4 2025, concluded that the Hustler Fund is structurally unsound, economically unsustainable, and politically manipulated, and recommends that the government scrap it entirely.

In addition, according to KHRC, the Hustler Fund startup capital loan amounts have an unrealistic repayment window, which it argues cannot give Kenyans a meaningful business.