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The principal types of business enterprises in Kenya are:

Registered Companies (Private and Public)
Branch offices of companies registered outside Kenya
Partnerships
Sole Proprietorships; and
Societies

Company Registration

In order to register your company, you will need to;

Reserve a company name and get it approved Registrar of Companies
Prepare the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association.
Complete various forms including Statement of Nominal Capital, Particulars of Directors and Shareholders, Situation of Registered Office and Certificate of a Lawyer involved in the Formation of the Company,
Stamp the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association and the Statement of Nominal Capital at the Lands Office together with payment of stamp duty on Nominal Capital.
File all the forms together with one stamped copy of the Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association with the Registrar of Companies.

You will then be issued with a Certificate of Incorporation by the Registrar of Companies. For public companies, in addition to the Certificate of Incorporation, the Registrar will issue a Trading Certificate

Opening a branch office of an overseas company

An overseas company wishing to open a branch office in Kenya should deliver the following to the Registrar of Companies:

A certified copy of the Charter, Statutes or Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Company, or other instruments defining the constitution of the company;
A list of the directors and secretary of the company, giving full names, nationality and other directorships of companies in Kenya;
A statement of all existing charges entered into by the company affecting properties in Kenya;
Names and postal addresses of one or more persons resident in Kenya authorised to accept, on behalf of the company, service of notices required to be served on the company;
Full address of the registered or principal office of the company in its home country and;
Full address of place of business in Kenya.

Register with KenInvest

You can reduce the bureaucracy you face in relation to licensing, immigration and negotiating tax incentives and exemptions from the relevant authorities by registering with Kenya Investment Authority. In order to do this, you will need to;

Fill the Investment Application Form
Engage legal advice in Kenya.
Register Your business
Submit Application Form + Certificate of Incorporation + Articles and memorandum of association to KenInvest
Issue of The Investment License

You will be then be issued with an investment Certificate after your project has undergone an Environmental, Health and Security impact assessments depending on the sector.

Download the necessary documents here KenInvest

The registration of businesses in Kenya has been made easier and faster. One can now do a name search and even register their business fully online on eCitizen. It’s important to note that from 15th October 2017, no manual registration of businesses will be done by the registrar of companies.

Here is the new process of registering a business in Kenya.

A. Log onto eCitizen your account

For you to use the eCitizen platform, you need to have registered on it which is a simple process. Once you log in, select Business Registration Service.

B. Name search

Once you are in the Business Registration Service, click on Make Application. It will take you a section where you will click on Business Name Registration. In the next step, you will need to choose the type of business you want to register plus your preferred business name.

If say you want to register a sole proprietorship or partnership, then choose Business Name Registration and if you want to register Private Limited Company then choose that option and so on.

A name search is processed within a day and only one name can be submitted at a time. It is processed from Monday to Friday between 8am to 5pm excluding public holidays.

C. Business Registration

Once the business name has been approved, you can then be allowed to register your business. The name search approval is not communicated via email so you have to keep checking the eCitizen website.

D. Requirements for registration

Company

1. Fill company registration form CR1 (Download HERE).
2. Fill details of directors and shareholders and upload scanned copies of I.D. card/passport, KRA PIN certificate and recent coloured passport photograph. Directors/shareholders have to be registered on the iTax platform.
3. Fill shareholding details.
4. Fill a notification of directors’ residential address – Form CR8.
5. Fill the statement of nominal capital.

Kindly note that you can now register a company with one person as both the shareholder and director.

Registration takes a week and certificate will be available on the eCitizen platform for download.

Partnership and Sole proprietorship

1. Fill BN2 form
2. Upload ID card/passport, KRA PIN certificate and recent coloured passport photographs of sole proprietor or partners as the case might be.

Registration takes a week and certificate will be available on the eCitizen platform for download.

E. Costs

    Name search – Ksh. 150
    Company registration – Ksh. 10,650
    Partnership and Sole proprietorship – Ksh. 1,000

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