Receipts
One money event a day, with the receipt
Public Money DeskReceipt
Deducted, not delivered: KES 3.92bn of SACCO money and KES 66.41bn of pension contributions taken from pay but not passed on
Our verdict · Opinion
In our view, money taken from a worker's pay should reach its destination as surely as PAYE reaches KRA: the new at-source payroll is the right fix for new deductions in counties, but the billions already owed still sit with employers, and we found no dated plan to repay them.
Employers took KES 3.92bn from workers' pay for SACCOs in 2025 and did not pass it on, SASRA says; county governments and assemblies owed KES 1.88bn of it. The Retirement Benefits Authority counted KES 66.41bn of unremitted pension contributions at the end of 2025, 93% of it owed by public-sector schemes. The Controller of Budget puts counties' salary arrears and unremitted deductions at about KES 100.2bn in June 2026. A payroll system that remits deductions at source started on 1 July 2026 in counties; it does not clear the old debts.
Markets DeskReceipt
Kenya's diaspora money: North America sent US$245m less in nine months, and the US tax is only 1%
Our verdict · Opinion
In our view, the US remittance tax is too small and too narrow to explain an 11.19% fall in money from North America on its own; the bigger, steadier cost for most senders is still the fee, and the shilling can absorb this fall, but a family that depends on one relative in America cannot.
Kenyans abroad sent home US$3.769bn from January to September 2026, US$5.2m less than a year earlier. North America sent US$245.2m less, down 11.19%. The new US tax is 1% and applies only to transfers paid in cash or similar paper. The average fee on US$200 from the US was 5.2% in the last World Bank survey in our file.
Public Money DeskReceipt
Kenya's unpaid bills: up to KES 475.5bn owed at June 2026, and KES 23.74bn approved to pay
Our verdict · Opinion
In our view, Kenya runs part of its budget on its suppliers' patience: KES 465.9 billion to KES 475.5 billion of bills were unpaid at June 2026 on the Treasury's own papers, and the payment Cabinet approved in October is KES 23.74 billion, with no start date.
On the National Treasury's count, national government pending bills stood at KES 475.5 billion on 30 June 2026 in its final review paper, and KES 465.9 billion in the draft; on the final paper, three-quarters are owed by state corporations. Revenue for 2025/26 fell KES 60.2 billion short of target. On 9 October 2026 Cabinet approved KES 23.74 billion for verified claims of KES 50 million or less. Larger claims are to be paid progressively, with no date.
Banking DeskReceipt
Kenya's banks earn more from the government than from you? Not yet, but the gap is closing
Our verdict · Opinion
Kenya's banks still earn more from lending to you than to the government, but in 2025 they grew their government holdings almost three times as fast as their loans: sensible for a bank while the state pays this well, and costly for an economy that needs credit.
In 2025 Kenya's banks earned KES 287.2 billion in interest from government securities and KES 500.4 billion from loans, according to the CBK. Government income rose while loan income fell, and holdings of government paper grew 18.2% against 6.6% for loans. At Equity Bank's Kenyan bank, 42% of interest income came from the government.
Companies DeskReceipt
Dangote's refinery IPO: Kenyans are offered a slice of Africa's biggest plant, through an expensive wrapper
Our verdict · Opinion
A real refinery that finally makes money, priced on its best half-year and sold to Kenyans through a costly wrapper.
Dangote's refinery is selling 3.3% of itself for about US$1.6 billion, and Kenyans can buy in through receipts on the NSE. Unlike Quickmart, the money goes to the company. The price leans on one very good half-year.
Public Money DeskReceipt
Kenya's Eurobond rescue: US$43m a year more in interest to clear its first bond
Our verdict · Opinion
Kenya paid off its first Eurobond in full, but only by borrowing at 10.375%, a price that showed how close markets thought it was to the edge, and one taxpayers will pay until 2031.
In February 2024 Kenya sold a US$1.5 billion bond at 10.375% to buy back most of a US$2 billion bond that cost 6.875%. The default scare ended. The interest bill went up, and it stays up until 2031.
Cost of Living DeskReceipt
What Fuliza really costs: KES 52 to borrow KES 1,000 for a week, 271% a year
Our verdict · Opinion
Fuliza is priced in shillings a night, which is accurate but hard to add up; worked out as simple yearly rates, the published fees on a KES 1,000 balance come to 231% to 584% a year, sixteen to forty times the average bank loan rate.
Using Safaricom's own published Fuliza charges, KES 1,000 kept for seven nights costs KES 52. As a simple yearly rate, by our arithmetic, that is 271%, against a 14.34% bank average and a 9.04% one-year Treasury bill. Kenyans drew KES 1.47 trillion on Fuliza in the year to March 2026.
Public Money DeskReceipt
Where the Housing Levy money went: KES 114.5bn collected, and none of 142 affordable housing projects finished at audit
Our verdict · Opinion
The Housing Levy collects like a tax and builds like a promise: KES 114.5 billion came in on time, while the houses it was sold on are mostly still building sites and plans.
By April 2025 KRA had collected KES 114.5 billion in Housing Levy. Of the first KES 34.7 billion, more went into Treasury bills than into houses. When the Auditor-General's team visited in April 2025, none of 142 affordable housing projects on the Board's list was finished. A worker on KES 50,000 a month pays KES 750, and their employer pays another KES 750.
Companies DeskReceipt
Kenya Airways' bailout bill: KES 122bn of state loans to become shares, and US$350m more on the way
Our verdict · Opinion
In our view the state is no longer just Kenya Airways' biggest shareholder but its lender of last resort: it has taken over the airline's guaranteed aircraft loan, has approved US$350 million more and plans to turn KES 122 billion of loans into shares, before KQ has shown it can follow its 2024 profit with another.
On 9 October 2026 Kenya Airways said the government had approved a US$350 million loan, about KES 45.15 billion, and in principle the conversion of about KES 122 billion of existing government loans into an equity-type instrument. At the end of 2025 the airline's liabilities exceeded its assets by KES 132.1 billion. Treasury reports show taxpayers also servicing the airline's US-guaranteed aircraft loan.
Public Money DeskReceipt
Kenya's 18.46% tax-free bond: savers' best deal was taxpayers' dearest loan
Our verdict · Opinion
The best deal Kenyan savers have had from their government in more than a decade was bought with taxpayers' money at the worst moment to borrow, and they will be paying for it until 2032.
In February 2024 Kenya sold KES 241 billion of an infrastructure bond at 18.46%, tax-free. To a saver that is worth 21.72% on a taxed bond. To the taxpayer it costs about KES 44.5 billion a year in interest until the first repayment in 2027, and about KES 302 billion over its life.
Banking DeskReceipt
KES 885 billion in SACCOs, and a deposit guarantee fund that has yet to be switched on
Our verdict · Opinion
Kenya's SACCO members hold KES 885 billion behind a deposit guarantee fund that is written into the Act but, on the regulator's own account, has yet to be made operational; a bank saver has a KES 500,000 safety net, a SACCO saver a KES 100,000 promise on paper.
Regulated SACCOs held KES 884.8 billion of members' deposits in June 2026. The Sacco Societies Act sets up a Deposit Guarantee Fund covering up to KES 100,000 a member, but SASRA says the Fund still has to be made operational, through a Bill now before Parliament. Until then, SACCO members lack the working safety net that bank depositors get from KDIC.
Markets DeskReceipt
The shilling that stopped falling: KES 314,200 off a US$10,000 loan, KES 15,710 off a US$500 transfer
Our verdict · Opinion
The shilling's recovery was real and, in every CBK bulletin we read, it has held for two and a half years, but it was a transfer, not a gift: anyone who owes or pays in dollars now needs about a fifth fewer shillings, and every family living on dollars from abroad gets about a fifth fewer.
The CBK rate hit KES 161.36 to the US dollar on 23 January 2024. By 28 March 2024 it was KES 131.80, and on 8 October 2026 it was KES 129.94. A US$10,000 debt now costs KES 314,200 less in shillings; a US$500 monthly transfer from abroad buys KES 15,710 less.
Markets DeskReceipt
The T-bill party is over: KES 500,000 in a one-year bill now earns KES 33,700 a year less
Our verdict · Opinion
The fall from 17% to 9% is the price of lower inflation and cheaper loans, and the savers who treated 2024's rates as normal are the ones paying it.
In April 2024 the 364-day Treasury bill paid 16.99%. At today's auction it paid 9.04%. On KES 500,000, that is KES 72,009 a year after tax then and KES 38,308 now. The CBK cut its rate from 13% to 8.75%, and savers moved to money market funds, which have grown from KES 171 billion to KES 460 billion in two years.
Companies DeskReceipt
Quickmart's IPO: KES 15 billion changes hands, and Quickmart gets none of it
Our verdict · Opinion
A real, profitable business, sold at a full price, on the sellers' terms.
Quickmart's owners are selling half the chain for KES 15 billion. The company raises nothing. The shop is good; the deal is built for the people leaving it.
Briefs, weekly notes and explainers are in Stories.