Starting a business in Kenya: foreigner's guide (2026)

The World Bank's 'From Barriers to Bridges' report found Kenya's capacity to create formal-sector jobs had deteriorated over a decade (90% of 2024's new jobs were informal), urging removal of foreign-investment restrictions and other barriers to starting and growing businesses.

After the November 2024 deadline lapsed, the Registrar of Companies gave non-compliant companies until 11 May 2025 to file beneficial-ownership information, underscoring that BO disclosure is now a standing condition of corporate compliance.

A Business Registration Service public notice required all companies and LLPs to file beneficial-ownership information by 24 November 2024, with penalties up to KES 500,000, formalising transparency obligations for every registered entity.

A gazette amendment to the National ICT Policy Guidelines deleted the equity-participation rule requiring 30% Kenyan ownership for ICT licensees, easing market entry and foreign investment in the digital economy.

The government migrated about 5,000 public services—including company and business-name registration—onto the eCitizen platform (and Gava Mkononi app), making online registration the default channel for starting a business.

New regulations required every company to keep and file a register of beneficial owners (natural persons holding ≥10% shares/voting rights or significant control), adding a transparency layer to incorporation.

Amending 16 statutes, the Act legalised electronic signatures and electronic registers and cut formalities and costs of transacting, explicitly aimed at improving the ease of doing business in Kenya.

Section 85 of the Finance Act 2016 deleted the Companies Act provision forcing foreign companies to cede 30% of shares to Kenyan citizens, removing a major deterrent to foreign direct investment.

The remaining parts of the Companies Act commenced (earlier parts began November 2015), replacing the colonial-era Cap 486 framework and operationalising single-member companies and simplified incorporation.

A landmark overhaul of company law consolidated incorporation, management and regulation rules, allowing a single person to form a private company and codifying away earlier procedural hurdles to starting a business.

The Act created the Business Registration Service as a state corporation to centrally administer registration of companies, partnerships and business names, the institutional foundation for today's one-stop registration system.

Modelled on the UK Companies Act 1948, Cap 486 governed company incorporation and registration in Kenya for decades, establishing the baseline framework that the 2015 reforms eventually replaced.