ALL REGISTERED COMPANIES IN KENYA HAVE NOW UPTO 60 DAYS FROM 1ST SEPTEMBER 2023 TO FILE BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP INFORMATION
The Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism Financing Laws (Amendment) Act, 2023 was signed into law on 1st September 2023. The new Act now provide for increased transparency on Beneficial Ownership Information for companies and introduces the requirement for Limited Liability Partnerships and Foreign Companies to maintain Beneficial Ownership Information Register.
The Act now requires companies to provide more detailed information about their Beneficial Owners and enhances the reporting structure and control mechanism. For instance, the new act requires beneficial owners’ information to be disclosed within 60 days from the date of it coming into force for all companies.
Furthermore, the new act requires all companies with Nominee Directors/Nominee Shareholders to maintain a register of all these Nominee directors/shareholders with the Registrar and all already registered companies to file updated register of nominee directors/shareholders within 60 days from 1st September 2023.
Private companies which have a share capital of less than 5 million and companies limited by guarantee can also elect to have company secretary if they so wish.
Private companies and companies limited by guarantee which do not have a resident director have also up to 60 days to appoint resident company secretaries or local contact persons.
The new law has also intensified penalties for none compliance with these new requirements for instance failure to appoint company secretary or contact person for companies with no resident directors attracts a fine of up to Ksh. 500,000.00.
Furthermore, the law now requires every company including foreign companies to keep and maintain a register of beneficial owners.
The new law further allows for the registration of foreign Limited Liability Partnerships which must appoint at least one local representative. The law further also requires LLPs to disclose and maintain a register of their beneficial owners.
The resultant effect of this new development is that all companies, LLPs and foreign companies must now ensure they comply with this new legislation to avoid crashing with the law. Additionally, we now await the Registrar of companies and LLPs to implement mechanisms in order to facilitate compliance with the new law.
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