Questions over the impact of the Hustler Fund have triggered a fresh exchange between the government and former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, with MSMEs Development Principal Secretary Susan Mang’eni challenging his assessment of the programme.
Mang’eni dismissed Gachagua’s remarks as misleading and pointed to uptake and repayment figures from Nyeri County as evidence that the government’s financial inclusion programme is reaching a large number of Kenyans.
She said around 420,000 people in Nyeri have received loans through the Hustler Fund since its launch, with the beneficiaries borrowing a total of Sh1.88 billion.
“This afternoon, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua made sensational claims about the Hustler Fund,” Mang’eni said.
“It is important to set the record straight, using Nyeri County as an example.”
The PS said the number of borrowers in Nyeri amounts to more than half of the county’s population, disputing the argument that the fund has failed to benefit ordinary citizens.
She also gave examples of the highest borrowers in different parts of the county, with the leading individual borrower having taken loans amounting to more than Sh2 million over time.
“The top individual borrower in Nyeri County has cumulatively borrowed Sh2.06 million,” she said.
“In Mathira Constituency, the top borrower has accessed Sh648,000. In Ruguru Ward, the top borrower has accessed Sh584,000.”
Beyond the number of people accessing the fund, Mang’eni pointed to repayment as another measure of its performance.
“Nyeri County also has the highest repayment rate in the country at 88 per cent, followed closely by Murang’a, Kiambu, and Nairobi at 87 per cent,” she said.
The PS used the figures to question Gachagua’s repeated claim that he speaks for Kenyans at the grassroots, asking where his assessment of the Hustler Fund was coming from.
“Huyu anaskiza ground gani?” Mang’eni asked, loosely translated as, “Which ground does he listen to?”
Her comments came after Gachagua criticised the Hustler Fund while reviewing the Kenya Kwanza administration’s four years in office during a media briefing.
The former Deputy President questioned whether the programme had delivered meaningful economic benefits to the people it was designed to support.
“The Hustler Fund whose head or tail cannot be traced,” Gachagua claimed.
He also raised questions about the government’s reported figures on the programme, particularly the claim that Sh87 billion had been given to 28 million people.
“The Hustler Fund is said to have disbursed Sh87 billion to 28 million people. What a paradox...” he said.
Gachagua further said he had not encountered anyone who could point to the Hustler Fund as the reason for growing their business.
“I am yet to hear any Kenyan say they have expanded their business courtesy of the Hustler Fund,” he said.
He argued that the money being distributed through the programme could have delivered a greater economic benefit if it had instead gone to savings and credit cooperative societies.
The competing positions have placed the reach, borrowing levels and repayment record of the Hustler Fund at the centre of the debate, with Mang’eni relying on Nyeri figures to counter Gachagua’s criticism of the programme.