How to buy US stocks and ETFs from Kenya

This page lists the investment platforms whose own pages say they accept residents of Kenya, with their licences, fees and the deposit methods available here. We only count platforms that publish a list of the countries they accept: a company that does not say whom it accepts is left out, even if it might open an account for you. Being on the list is not a recommendation.

Some verified points for Kenya:

• Interactive Brokers names Kenya on its list of available countries and territories. Its pages do not say which of its companies opens accounts for Kenyan residents, so check the company named in your client agreement. Deposits are by bank transfer: IBKR charges no deposit fee, though your bank may, and after two free withdrawals a calendar month it charges a fee per bank transfer.
• The licences we show for it come from regulators outside Kenya.

Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) published a public caution on 11 September 2026 in which it “wishes to caution the public against a number of entities purporting to offer investment services in Kenya without the requisite licensing or approval.” In an earlier press release (17 June 2021) it advised: “Investors are advised to confirm the names of the licensed and approved entities offering services in the capital markets industry from the CMA website www.cma.or.ke.” One of the CMA’s core functions, it says, is to operate a compensation fund “to protect investors from financial loss arising from the failure of a licensed broker or dealer to meet his contractual obligations”; the pages we checked state no payout limit.

For US shares, the platform will ask you for Form W-8BEN. The IRS says most US-source income of a foreign person, dividends included, is taxed at 30% through a withholding tax unless a tax treaty or the tax code sets a lower rate. Kenya was not on the IRS list of US income tax treaties when we checked. Kenya may tax the same dividend too, so ask the national tax authority or a qualified tax adviser. Finally, no investor compensation scheme pays for falling prices.