james wika 
Six in Ten Kenyan Households Expect to Miss Bill Payments, Consumer Pulse Study Finds;
- TransUnion Kenya’s Consumer Pulse Study shows financial strain as households turn to gig work, savings, and family support to stay afloat
- Fraud remains a pressing concern for consumers, with more than seven in ten experiencing attempts to defraud them in Q2 2025
Information and insights company TransUnion Kenya has published its Q2 2025 Consumer Pulse Study* which reveals that 62% of Kenyans expect to be unable to pay at least one of their current loans or bills in full in the coming quarter.
To cope, nearly half (48%) said they would take on temporary or gig work, 34% planned to use their savings, and 30% expected to borrow money from friends or family.
Despite these financial pressures, Kenyan consumers continue to show resilience. Many are finding ways to keep their financial commitments, even as they navigate challenges like inflation, job security, and housing costs.
Kenyans are also taking charge of their financial futures, with 34% indicating that someone in their household started a new business, nearly one in five (18%) started a new job, and one fifth (20%) reported income increases in the past month.
This confidence – and increase in income –has seen 40% of consumers paying down their debt more quickly, while nearly half (46%) have been able to increase their emergency savings – a five-percentage point increase from the same period last year.
While Kenyans express optimism about the future, their top financial concerns reflect ongoing macroeconomic pressures.
Inflation leads the way, with 76% identifying it among their top three worries, followed closely by job security (60%) and housing affordability (55%).
Together, these paint a picture of a population navigating rising costs, employment uncertainty, and challenges in securing stable living conditions.
With these concerns in mind, 61% cut back on discretionary spending such as dining out, travel or entertainment in the preceding three months.
This is likely to be a trend that will continue, as more than half (55%) expect their discretionary spend to decrease in the coming three months, and 42% expected their spend on in-store or online retail to decrease too. Nearly half (49%) expected to spend less on large purchases in the next quarter.
“Kenya continues on its growth path, driven by resilient and value-driven consumers who are navigating a moderate inflation environment that’s inspiring cautious optimism in the country’s recovering economy,” said Morris Maina, CEO of TransUnion Kenya.
“By delaying spend on big ticket items and finding ways to manage their debt effectively, consumers are signalling mature credit behaviour, which in turn is likely to be a driver for economic growth into the future.”
One of the most effective ways for consumers to manage their credit commitments effectively is to monitor their credit score and record, and nearly two thirds (65%) of respondents to the survey said that they monitor their credit at least monthly.
More than half (55%) said that they do this to improve their credit scores, half (50%) said that they do so to monitor accuracy, and nearly one third (32%) said that they do so to protect themselves against fraud.
Kenyans focus on fraud detection and prevention
Data breaches (56%), stolen identity (53%) and credit card fraud (46%) were the cyber threats that most concerned surveyed Kenyan consumers.
More than half of Kenyans (56%) were worried about becoming a victim of fake social media profiles, with the next most pressing worries being that personal information would be exposed in data breaches (52%), that they would fall victim to viruses or malware (44%) or email phishing (44%).
In Q2 2025, 71% of respondents reported being targeted by fraud attempts through online platforms, emails, phone calls, or text messages, but they did not fall victim.
An additional 10% said they were both targeted and scammed Medium-income consumers (KSH 300,000 to KSH 1.4 million per annum) were particularly affected, with 77% reporting fraud attempts — nearly ten percentage points higher than other income groups.
The most common types of scams included vishing (fraudulent phone calls meant to trick you into revealing data) at 46%, money/gift card scams (45%),phishing (fraudulent emails, websites, social posts, QR codes, etc. meant to steal data) at 40%,smishing (fraudulent text messages meant to trick you into revealing data) at 39% and third-party seller scams on legitimate retail websites (36%).
“Financial services institutions can help their consumers protect their credit profiles by adding solutions like identity proofing and risk-based authentication to their onboarding processes, without compromising consumer experiences during the application process,” Maina said.
“With fraudsters evolving their strategies all the time, preventing and detecting fraud must be a holistic approach that empowers financial services providers, businesses and consumers to protect themselves.”
