{"id":19116,"date":"2026-10-05T13:26:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/?p=19116"},"modified":"2026-10-05T13:26:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:26:15","slug":"banks-in-trouble-journalism-must-ask-what-the-source-leaves-unanswered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/2026\/10\/05\/banks-in-trouble-journalism-must-ask-what-the-source-leaves-unanswered\/","title":{"rendered":"Banks in trouble? Journalism must ask what the source leaves unanswered"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ghost Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banks are required to keep a financial cushion to help them absorb losses when things go wrong. Last year, every Kenyan bank was required to have at least Sh3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, seven banks failed to meet that minimum. And the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) came knocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is serious news. Capital FM, the People Daily, Business Today and Tuko all reported it in the last week of September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the first question any reader, particularly one with money in a bank, would surely ask is: which seven banks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the four publications named them. There was a good reason: the CBK Bank Supervision Annual Report, on which the stories were based, did not name them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the four stories were different. Capital FM reported on September 22 that CBK had \u201cflagged\u201d the seven banks. It just forgot to tell readers that CBK had withheld their names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor did it answer the questions that naturally followed. How far below Sh3 billion were the banks? Why had they failed? Consequences? Were customers\u2019 deposits at risk? What did the banks say? Nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The People Daily dug deeper. It reported numerous other breaches. Ten banks broke the rule preventing a bank from lending too much to one borrower. Two exceeded permitted investment in land and buildings. Two breached foreign-exchange exposure requirements. One failed to keep the required minimum in cash and other readily available funds to meet withdrawals and short-term obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a lot of breaches. Surely, that deserved deeper reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The People Daily did a better job of mining the report. But the elephant remained in the room: which were the seven banks? Worse, it did not tell readers that CBK itself had not named them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Today handled that better. It explained what core capital is \u2013 essentially a bank\u2019s financial cushion against losses \u2013 and that banks without enough may need more money from shareholders or new investors, or may have to merge with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then it levelled with readers: \u201cThe report does not identify the seven banks in the cited summary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good. In other words: We haven’t forgotten the obvious question. The answer simply isn’t in our source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuko did the same \u2014 and added useful context. It reported that regulatory breaches across the banking sector had jumped from 11 in December 2024 to 35 in December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh wow! Now we had perspective. The seven banks were part of a much wider increase in regulatory non-compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuko also discussed pressures facing smaller banks, including rising costs, shrinking margins and difficulties raising fresh capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, crucially, it told readers: \u201cThe CBK report does not name the specific banks in breach.\u201d Again, good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s value in journalism simply telling readers what it knows and what it does not know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But still, Business Today and Tuko stopped one important step short. The missing names should not have ended the inquiry. They should have started another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call CBK. Who are the seven banks? Why aren’t they named? How far below the minimum was each? What action has CBK taken? Are customers\u2019 deposits at risk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If CBK refuses to answer, tell us. If it does not respond, tell us that too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reporters could also try to identify the banks independently and seek their responses. That takes time and effort. Fine. Do a follow-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But none of the four stories tells us that such an attempt was made. And that is the bigger journalism issue. A regulator\u2019s report is a source. It is not the finished news story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBK had already established the fact: seven banks were in breach. That should have been the journalist\u2019s starting point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report says seven banks. The journalist asks: which seven? It says they failed the Sh3 billion requirement. By how much? It records a breach. What happens now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And because banks hold people\u2019s salaries, savings, school fees and biashara money, the journalist asks the question probably sitting in everyone\u2019s minds: is my money safe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a difference between reporting what a report says and reporting the story the report reveals. The first requires reading. The second requires questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ghost Writer Banks are required to keep a financial cushion to help them absorb losses when things go wrong. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-newsletter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19116"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19117,"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116\/revisions\/19117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaobserver.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}