Trust Administration Act, 2026 in Kenya: What Has Changed?

On 8^th September, 2026, the President signed four bills into law, including the Trust Administration Bill. This means that Kenya’s trust law has officially entered a new phase, as the Trust Administration Act, 2026 was subsequently published in Kenya Gazette. It commences on 25^th September, 2026 and repeals the Trustees (Perpetual Succession) Act (Cap. 164) and the Trustees Act (Cap. 167).

The new Act therefore consolidates trust law from a framework largely focused on incorporation to a system covering creation, registration, incorporation, administration, transparency and dissolution. This blog captures some of the most notable changes and improvements below.

The new regime

The first and most immediate change is structural. The repealed Trustees (Perpetual Succession) Act principally dealt with incorporation, allowing persons constituted to form a trust to apply for incorporation, after which the trustees became a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal.

The 2026 Act separates registration from incorporation. A key distinction is that while incorporation guarantees legal personality, registration does not. A registered trust may subsequently become incorporated under Section 33.

Secondly, the Act makes registration central to enforceability. Section 5 recognises written and implied trusts, but provides that a written trust must be registered or incorporated and is not enforceable unless this occurs. A person claiming an interest under an unregistered or unincorporated written trust may nevertheless apply to court for recognition or enforcement. This is a significant change from the old Act, which focused on incorporation rather than imposing this general statutory condition.

Thirdly, several provisions introduced into the old Act by the amendments in 2021 have been retained. The rules on irrevocable, charitable, non-charitable purpose and family trusts, beneficiaries, disclaimer and enforcers appear in both regimes. Notably, the new Act develops these rules further. For example, section 14 regulates appointment of an enforcer and section 17 sets out how an appointment ends. The notification period is also significantly reduced, as relevant changes must be notified within twenty-one days, compared with thirty days under old section 3J(9).

A fourth major addition is the statutory regulation of trustees.

Part VI establishes qualifications and disqualifications, including restrictions linked to certain criminal convictions, bankruptcy and insolvency. Part VII then sets detailed duties, including reasonable care, skill and diligence, acting within powers, preserving and separating trust property, keeping records and providing information. The old Act contained no comparable standalone framework of trustee duties.

Transparency is another substantial development. The new Act requires every trust to keep a register of beneficial owners, and lodge it with the Registrar. Existing incorporated trusts have twenty-four months from commencement to lodge the register. Changes must be lodged within twenty-one days while records must be retained for at least seven years after a person ceases to be a beneficial owner. These requirements introduce transparency in ownership, absent from the repealed Act.

Additionally, the new framework creates continuing compliance obligations. Section 75 requires annual returns within thirty days of the anniversary of registration or incorporation.

The Act also expressly creates the role of trust agents, being advocates, certified secretaries and certified accountants performing specified statutory functions. It then establishes a Registrar of Trusts within the Business Registration Service, recognises electronic filing while providing that false or misleading documents attract up to KSh 1 million in fines or two years’ imprisonment. Section 93 goes further to provide a general fine of up to KSh 1 million where no specific penalty applies.

The Act also provides an express route for ending a trust. The Registrar may dissolve a trust where its purpose has been fulfilled or ceased, has become impossible to achieve, or pursuant to a court order.

The Act also introduces mandatory publication of a notice in the Gazette before and after dissolution. It goes ahead to address withdrawal, restoration and dealings with property after dissolution. In contrast, while the repealed Act dealt with dissolution of an incorporated corporate body, it did not provide an equivalent detailed dissolution framework.

One old provision has also disappeared as a standalone rule. Old section 3E expressly permitted trustees to accept additional property and addressed trusts declared over property that is not yet owned. The 2026 Act does not just reproduce it in equivalent terms. Instead, Section 34 places trust property within strict administration according to the trust deed, the Act, court orders or written law.

Finally, the new Act provides a transition rather than an abrupt reset. Existing incorporated trusts are deemed to be trusts under the new Act, and their existing rights, powers, liabilities and duties continue. They must, however, comply with the new requirements within twenty-four months of commencement, or another period directed by the Registrar.

Conclusion

Indeed, trust law in Kenya has transitioned from the general and underdeveloped framework in both Cap 167 and 164 to the new Act which, for instance, expressly imposes positive duties and standards of conduct on trustees. Equally significant, the new Act integrates trusts into the overall registration framework with consequential amendments to both the Registration of Documents Act and the Business Registration Service Act. Therefore, while repealing the previous trust statutes, it preserves existing trusts by transitioning them into the new legal framework.