The Kenyan shilling
Currency · KES · 1 country
Only the Central Bank of Kenya may issue the shilling, a right set out in Article 231 of the 2010 constitution, which also bars any person's portrait from Kenyan notes and coins. The currency took over from the East African shilling at par on 14 September 1966. Its coins since December 2018 carry animals instead of presidents.
No sign of its own
The shilling has no sign of its own. Kenyans write it as the abbreviation KSh before the figure, or split shillings and cents with a slash and fill an empty place with an equals sign or a hyphen: 100/= is a hundred shillings and -/50 is fifty cents.
- ISO code
- KES
- ISO number
- 404
- Subunit
- cent, 1/100
An amount, written out
KES 1,234.50
- KES 1,234.50English
- Ksh 1,234.50EnglishKenya
Where the Kenyan shilling is the official currency
Kenya pays in it as the successor to the shared East African shilling, whose notes stopped being legal tender there in September 1967.
About the Kenyan shilling
Who holds the right to issue the shilling
Article 231(2) of the constitution makes the Central Bank of Kenya responsible for issuing currency, and Section 22 of the Central Bank of Kenya Act gives it the sole right to do so. Only its notes and coins are legal tender. The bank orders the notes printed and the coins minted, supplies them to commercial banks in bulk and destroys what comes back unfit. Its branches in Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret and its currency centres in Nyeri, Nakuru, Meru and Kisii move cash round the country.
The same Act caps what small coins can settle. A 50 cent coin is legal tender only for payments up to 20 shillings, and anything smaller only up to five.
Where the shilling and the word pesa came from
Before the shilling there were rupees. The Imperial British East Africa Company issued pice, annas and rupees, and the railway from Mombasa, begun in May 1896 and built largely by Indian labour, carried rupee coins and notes inland. The pice became the everyday unit and gave rise to the word pesa, money.
In December 1919 a London-based East African Currency Board replaced the Mombasa Currency Board and moved the region off the rupee towards a currency convertible to sterling. It first issued a florin the size and shape of the rupee to ease the change, and the shilling followed, twenty to the pound.
How Kenya left the shared currency
As the East African territories became independent from 1962, the board stopped putting the monarch on its notes and coins. The three countries hoped for a common central bank. Meanwhile the board's interim notes showed a dhow on Lake Victoria, water all three shared, and were the first to print Swahili.
The common bank did not come. Kenya set up its own under the Central Bank of Kenya Act, and its notes were made legal by Legal Notice 252 of 1 July 1966. The Kenyan shilling replaced the East African one at par on 14 September 1966. The Royal Mint struck the first Kenyan coins, in cupro-nickel, and the bank issued them on 10 April 1967. East African Currency Board notes stopped being legal tender in September 1967 and its coins in April 1969.
Why the presidents came off the money
A president's portrait was on Kenyan money from the start. Jomo Kenyatta appeared from 1966, Daniel arap Moi replaced him from 1980, and Kenyatta returned on the series issued from 2003 and 2005. The 2010 constitution ended that. Kenyan currency may depict Kenya or an aspect of it, but no individual's portrait.
The bank complied with coins on 11 December 2018 and notes in June 2019. The coins show the coat of arms on one side and animals on the other. Every note in the new family has the Kenyatta International Convention Centre on the front, with a theme on the back running from green energy on the 50 shillings to governance on the 1,000. When the notes arrived, the bank withdrew every earlier 1,000 shilling note, which stopped being legal tender on 1 October 2019.
Common questions
Questions about the Kenyan shilling
Why is there no president on Kenyan banknotes anymore?
Article 231(4) of the 2010 constitution says Kenyan notes and coins may show images that depict or symbolise Kenya but not the portrait of any individual. The Central Bank of Kenya brought in new coins on 11 December 2018 and a new family of notes in June 2019 to comply. Earlier notes had carried Jomo Kenyatta or Daniel arap Moi. With the new notes the bank also withdrew all older 1,000 shilling notes, which ceased to be legal tender on 1 October 2019.
What does 100/= mean on a Kenyan price?
It means a hundred shillings and no cents. The figure before the slash is shillings and the one after it is cents, and an equals sign or hyphen stands for zero. Fifty cents is written -/50. The abbreviation KSh goes in front where the figure needs telling apart from another currency, and alone when the amount is spelled out in words, as in KSh10million.
Where does the Swahili word pesa come from?
From the pice, a small copper coin of the rupee system that the Imperial British East Africa Company and then the East Africa Protectorate issued. The rupee spread inland with the railway from Mombasa from 1896, and the pice became the common unit of exchange.
When did Kenya get its own currency?
Its notes became legal on 1 July 1966 under Legal Notice 252, and the Kenyan shilling replaced the East African shilling at par on 14 September 1966. The first Kenyan coins went into circulation on 10 April 1967, struck in cupro-nickel by the Royal Mint. Before that Kenya had shared a currency with its neighbours through the East African Currency Board, set up after a decision of December 1919.