Nairobi, Kenya — The credit referencing debate is still heating up in Kenya with the current reference bureaus facing several litigations over claims of blacklisting even good borrowers.

The bureaus have especially come into sharp focus at this time when politicians and aspirants running for public office are required to be cleared by the Kenya Credit Reference Bureau.

The debate is that the bureaus are using erroneous information to blacklist borrowers without due regard to the current credit-worthiness of the borrowers.

The government has been forced to intervene and called on the bureaus to only share information that has been verified and current. The government also ordered the bureaus to share information on good borrowers in efforts aimed at ease of access to credit facilities by the Kenyan public.

The intervention was made by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) which is also the financial industry regulator.

"The banking sector regulator has revised the Credit Reference Bureaus (CRB) Regulations to facilitate full reporting and provide a legal framework for sharing of positive information by commercial banks," CBK said.