Kenya company registration fee: KES 10,000, 10,650 or 10,750?
Registering a private limited company in Kenya has three different official prices, depending on which government document you read. The Companies (General) Regulations set the statutory fee at KES 10,000. The Business Registration Service (BRS) fee schedule lists KES 10,650. A BRS FAQ leaflet from May 2024 tells applicants to pay KES 10,750. All three come from government sources, and none of them explains the gap.
Who says what
- Companies (General) Regulations, 2015 (L.N. 239 of 2015), Ninth Schedule, Part 1 (Kenya Law)
Consolidation dated 31 Dec 2022, shown as the latest version on 31 Oct 2026; last amended by L.N. 2/2018 · kenyalaw.org
KES 10,000 “for registration of a company under sections 17 and 18 of the Act”. Subsidiary legislation: the law.
- Business Registration Service, “Fee Schedule – Companies Registry”
Page metadata shows a last change on 4 Jan 2023 · brs.go.ke
KES 10,650 for a private limited company (forms CR1, CR2, CR8 and the statement of nominal capital); the same KES 10,650 for a public limited company. The registry’s published price list.
- Business Registration Service, “Frequently Asked Questions” (PDF)
Uploaded May 2024 (file created 5 May 2024) · brs.go.ke
“Make payment for the service of Kshs. 10,750” for a private limited company. The registry’s user guide.
The same gap on other services
A change of company name shows the same pattern. The Regulations charge KES 2,000 for a notice of change of name lodged within 14 days (KES 3,000 if later). The BRS schedule lists KES 4,000 for a company, and the BRS FAQ says to pay KES 4,050. Registering a business name is the exception: the schedule and the FAQ agree on a registration fee of KES 950.
Which document is primary?
In law, the Regulations. The Ninth Schedule, headed “Fees payable under the Act” and tied to regulations 68 to 72, is the published legal text that prescribes the registration fee. A fee schedule on a web page or a leaflet does not amend a legal notice.
In practice, the eCitizen invoice. Registration runs on the BRS portal through eCitizen, and the last step in the BRS FAQ is paying the amount the portal bills. Whatever the invoice shows on the day is what you pay.
Neither BRS document says what the extra KES 650 (or KES 750) pays for, and the Regulations list no second charge that adds up to it. One possible but unconfirmed explanation: the same BRS schedule lists an “Official Search (Companies)” at KES 650, exactly the gap, which may be billed with a new registration; BRS does not say so. Until BRS publishes a breakdown, the accurate answer is: the statutory fee is KES 10,000, the registry’s listed price is KES 10,650, and its 2024 leaflet said KES 10,750.
Costs that are separate from the registration fee
The registration fee is not the whole government bill. The Stamp Duty Act (Cap. 480), in the Kenya Law consolidation dated 1 July 2026, also charges:
| Charge | Amount | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp duty on the Memorandum of Association | KES 2,000 | Schedule item 23 |
| Stamp duty on the Articles of Association | KES 2,000 | Schedule item 3(1) |
| Capital duty on the initial nominal share capital | Nil (exempt) | Legal Notice No. 60 of 2016 |
| Capital duty on a later increase of nominal share capital (unlisted company) | KES 20 per KES 2,000 or part (1%) | Section 39 and Schedule item 8 |
Legal Notice No. 60 of 2016 (Kenya Gazette Vol. CXVIII No. 38, 15 April 2016) exempts “the initial nominal share capital of a company registered or to be registered with limited liability” from the ad valorem duty under section 39. A company formed with KES 100,000 of nominal capital therefore pays no capital duty on that capital; raising the capital later to KES 200,000 costs KES 1,000 in capital duty on the increase. Kenya Law files the notice under the Income Tax Act; its wording follows the exemption power in section 106 of the Stamp Duty Act. Whether the BRS figure already includes either stamp duty is not stated on the schedule.
Why the difference matters
A founder budgeting from the Regulations will be short at checkout. An accountant quoting the FAQ figure may overstate the fee by KES 100. Templates, guides and checklists that print a single number without a date go out of date silently. The safest wording in a document or budget is “the registration fee charged on the BRS portal (KES 10,650 on the BRS fee schedule as of October 2026; statutory fee KES 10,000)”.
Which figure our documents use
Our Kenyan company documents quote KES 10,650, the BRS fee schedule figure, because it is the price the registry publishes for the service and the closer guide to what the eCitizen invoice shows. The fact table carries the statutory KES 10,000 as a separate row, and the Kenya Law text of the Regulations remains the legal reference.
Check it yourself
- Read the statutory fee. Open the Companies (General) Regulations on Kenya Law, scroll to the Ninth Schedule, Part 1, and read the first line. Check that the page still says it is the latest version; a new legal notice could change the figure.
- Read the registry’s price. Open the BRS Companies Registry fee schedule and find the “Private Limited Company” row in the “Register a Business” table.
- Compare the FAQ. Open the BRS FAQ PDF, section “How do I register a private limited company?”.
- See the real invoice. Start the application on the BRS eCitizen portal and stop at the payment screen. The invoice lists the amount due before you pay.
- Ask BRS. The BRS FAQ gives the support line 011 112 7000; ask what the amount above KES 10,000 covers and whether stamp duty is included.
Sources
- https://kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/act/ln/2015/239/eng@2022-12-31 — Companies (General) Regulations, 2015 (L.N. 239 of 2015), Ninth Schedule, Part 1 (Kenya Law)
- https://brs.go.ke/fee-schedule-companies-registry/ — Business Registration Service, “Fee Schedule – Companies Registry”
- https://brs.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/FAQs.pdf — Business Registration Service, “Frequently Asked Questions” (PDF)
Every source above was opened and read on 31 October 2026. Fees and procedures change by legal notice, Finance Act or registry update, so check the date on each source before relying on a figure.
How to cite
“Kenya company registration fee: KES 10,000, 10,650 or 10,750?” by Forms Legal, https://forms-legal.com/facts/discrepancies/kenya-company-registration-fee-10000-10650-10750. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
@misc{formslegal_discrepancy_kenya_company_registration_fee_10000_10650_10750,
author = {{Forms Legal}},
title = {Kenya company registration fee: KES 10,000, 10,650 or 10,750?},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Forms Legal},
url = {https://forms-legal.com/facts/discrepancies/kenya-company-registration-fee-10000-10650-10750},
howpublished = {\url{https://forms-legal.com/facts/discrepancies/kenya-company-registration-fee-10000-10650-10750}},
note = {Reference note. Licensed under CC BY 4.0}
}Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. Cite the official sources above for the figures themselves.
Related fact tables
More cases: where official sources disagree.
Reference information, not legal advice. Forms Legal is not a law firm.