Forex Trading in Kenya: CMA Rules, Licensed Brokers and M-Pesa

The legal position

Kenya regulates online forex trading directly. The Capital Markets (Online Foreign Exchange Trading) Regulations 2017 create three kinds of licence:

Licence	What it allows	Minimum paid-up capital
Non-dealing online forex broker	Passes client orders to the market, for a commission or spread mark-up; doesn’t act as market maker	KSh 30 million
Dealing online forex broker	Trades as principal and market maker against clients	KSh 50 million
Online forex money manager	Manages clients’ forex portfolios for a fee	KSh 10 million

Running an online forex business without one of these licences is an offence. Licensees must be companies incorporated in Kenya.

The rules that matter most to traders:

• Leverage is capped at 400 times the client’s deposit (1:400). The CMA can revise this by circular.
• Client money is segregated in accounts at Kenyan banks. It can’t be used for margin, hedging or as the broker’s own assets, including if the broker becomes insolvent.
• No Kenya shilling pairs and no binary options.
• Money managers may not receive client money themselves.
• Extra protections since 2023. A CMA circular of September 2023 requires negative balance protection (you can’t lose more than the money in your account) and margin stop-out protection. It also requires standard risk warnings, quarterly reporting of client loss ratios, and CMA approval before brokers launch new CFD products.

Licensed brokers

The CMA licensee register is the place to check. On 8 November 2026 it listed:

Category	Number listed	Examples (licence number)
Non-dealing online forex brokers	14	EGM Securities, “FXPesa” (107); Pepperstone Markets Kenya (128); Exinity Capital East Africa (135); HFM Investments, “HF Markets” (155); Exness KE Limited (162); IC Markets (KE) (199); TPXMGLOBAL Kenya, XM (233); Ava Trade Kenya (262)
Dealing online forex brokers	2	Empire FX Trade (203); CC Kenya Securities, Capital.com (244)
Online forex money managers	3	Standard Investment Bank, MANSA X (116)

The register doesn’t show licence dates. A broker’s brand on the list doesn’t automatically cover you, though. Your account has to be opened with the Kenyan company, usually on the broker’s Kenyan website, such as exness.ke or xm.ke. Check the company name in your client agreement.

CMA warnings

The CMA publishes public cautions. On 11 September 2026 it named 15 entities that were offering investment services in Kenya without a licence or approval, and said they were under investigation with the DCI. In 2023 the CMA said it was working with the Central Bank of Kenya, the Communications Authority and the Financial Reporting Centre against unlicensed online forex brokers.

Warning signs include promises of fixed returns, “account managers” who trade for you, and requests to send money to a person rather than to a licensed broker. Our guide to choosing a forex broker covers the others.

Which Exness, HFM and XM companies serve Kenyans

Broker	Kenyan company	CMA licence	Notes
Exness (the broker we recommend)	Exness KE Limited	162, non-dealing	Kenyan residents are directed to exness.ke. Exness’s help centre gives 1:400 maximum leverage and says Stop Out Protection doesn’t apply to these accounts
HFM	HFM Investments Ltd	155, non-dealing	Licensed in late 2021
XM	TPXMGLOBAL Kenya Limited	233, non-dealing	Approved in September 2025; onboards through xm.ke

Our Exness review and Exness vs HFM comparison go into account types and costs.

Forex trading in Kenya using M-Pesa

Exness offers M-Pesa deposits and withdrawals on exness.ke. The public sources we have don’t give the minimum, the maximum or any fees. Your Personal Area shows the limits that apply to your account. Don’t use figures from other countries: Exness’s Mobile Money article covers Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Cameroon, not M-Pesa in Kenya.

To withdraw to M-Pesa:

1. Log in to your Personal Area on exness.ke and finish verification.
2. Open withdrawals and choose M-Pesa.
3. Enter an M-Pesa number registered in your own name. Exness pays out only to accounts in the same legal name as your profile.
4. Enter the amount, confirm, and note the transaction reference and time.
5. Wait for the M-Pesa SMS. If it doesn’t arrive, check the status in your transaction history before contacting support.

Problem	Likely cause	What to do
M-Pesa not listed	Account not verified, or not registered with Kenya as the country	Finish verification; check your registered country
Withdrawal rejected	The M-Pesa line is in someone else’s name	Use a line registered in your own name
Pending for a long time	Processing delay or maintenance	Check for notices in the Personal Area; one trader reported a weekend block that Exness described as maintenance
Can’t withdraw the full balance	Funds held as margin for open trades	Check the withdrawable amount shown

For Mobile Money in other African countries, Exness requires deposits and withdrawals to use the same phone number. Until we’ve confirmed the M-Pesa rule, withdrawing to the number you deposited from avoids the question. We haven’t found official confirmation of Airtel Money on Exness in Kenya. Nobody legitimate will ask for your M-Pesa PIN.

Shillings and the exchange rate

Trading accounts are usually held in US dollars, so shillings are converted on the way in and on the way out. Note the shilling amount you paid and the dollar amount credited to see the rate you got. Whether the M-Pesa amount is entered in shillings or dollars is shown on the payment screen.

Trading hours in Kenyan time

Kenya uses East Africa Time (EAT, UTC+3) all year. In Nairobi time, the forex week opens around midnight between Sunday and Monday, and closes around midnight between Friday and Saturday. Exact times depend on your broker and shift by an hour when the US and Europe change their clocks.

Using the common definition of the London session (08:00 to 17:00 London time) and the New York session (08:00 to 17:00 New York time), they overlap at roughly:

Period	London–New York overlap in EAT (approximate)
November to mid-March	16:00 to 20:00
Late March to late October	15:00 to 19:00

The US and UK change their clocks on different dates, so for a week or two in March and around the end of October the overlap is an hour longer. See forex trading hours for the full session times and how they affect gold.

Tax

We haven’t found guidance from the Kenya Revenue Authority that deals specifically with forex trading gains for individuals. Ask KRA or a qualified tax adviser how your trading should be treated, and keep records of every deposit, withdrawal and trade.

Safe first steps

1. Check the broker’s Kenyan company on the CMA register, and make sure your client agreement names it.
2. Learn how leverage works before you use it: leverage and margin.
3. Practise on a demo account: demo accounts.
4. Start small, and test an M-Pesa withdrawal soon after your first deposit.
5. Size positions with the lot size calculator from the amount you’re prepared to lose.
6. Ignore signals sellers and “account managers”, and never share your login or M-Pesa PIN.

To open an account with Exness’s Kenyan company, follow our account opening guide.