A regulator with its own register
Forex trading in Kenya
Kenya is unusual: its Capital Markets Authority licenses online forex brokers directly, and its public register listed 16 of them when we checked — 14 non-dealing and 2 dealing. None of the nine brokers on this site is on that list, and any Kenyan comparison page that does not say so plainly is hiding the first thing you need to know.
Checked against each broker's own pages and the regulator's register
The nine brokers we track, read from Kenya
Two columns decide most of it: whether the broker holds a Kenyan licence, and whether it publishes a Kenyan payment rail. On the first, every answer is the same. On the second, only one broker breaks ranks.
| Broker | CMA licence | Mobile money published | What you fund with instead | Minimum to start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deriv | No | M-Pesa, 5–1,000 USD in and out, instant both ways; also Airtel, MTN, Equitel and Tigo | Cards, bank transfer, e-wallets, crypto | From 1 USD — the floor is set by the method |
| Tickmill | No | None published | Cards, bank wire, Skrill, Neteller, UnionPay, crypto | 100 USD, EUR or GBP |
| RoboForex | No | None published | Cards, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller, SticPay | 10 USD |
| FxPro | No | None published | Cards, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal | Not published |
| LiteFinance | No | None published — its payment page lists four groups and no mobile money | Bank wire, cards, crypto, e-wallets | 50 USD |
| Libertex | No | None published | Cards, SEPA transfer, Skrill, Trustly, PayPal | 100 EUR first deposit |
| Alpari | No | Not stated on pages we could capture | Not stated on pages we could capture | 30 USD on the Micro account |
| Fortrade | No | Not stated — its FAQ answers do not render for us | Cards and bank wire, per its withdrawal rules | Not published |
| Bybit | No | None published | Crypto rails; it is a crypto exchange rather than a forex broker | Not published |
Licence status from the CMA's own register at licensees.cma.or.ke, checked 24 August 2026. Payment methods from each broker's own payment pages, captured 23–24 August 2026. Where a broker's page could not be captured, the cell says so rather than guessing.
What a CMA licence is, and what it is not
Kenya does not treat online forex as something happening elsewhere. The Capital Markets Authority runs three licence categories for it — non-dealing online foreign exchange broker, dealing online foreign exchange broker, and online foreign exchange money manager — and publishes the holders in a searchable register. When we checked, 14 firms held the non-dealing licence and 2 the dealing one.
A locally licensed broker is a Kenyan company answerable to a Kenyan regulator. If something goes wrong, the complaint goes to an authority in Nairobi rather than to one in a jurisdiction you have never visited, and the firm's capital, client-money handling and disclosure sit under Kenyan rules.
What it is not is a guarantee against losses. A licence governs conduct, not outcomes: the brokers on this site publish that between 69% and 83% of their retail clients lose money, and a Kenyan licence would not change that arithmetic. The choice is about recourse, not about results.
What you are actually choosing between
If you open an account with one of the nine brokers here, you are contracting with a company registered somewhere else — Malta, Belize, the Seychelles, St Vincent, Mauritius, the Comoros — and the one that gets your account is determined by your country and named at signup, not by the website you arrived through.
That is worth reading before depositing, because the protections differ enormously between entities of the same brand. Deriv's Maltese company sits under EU rules; its offshore ones do not. Tickmill's UK and Cyprus entities carry compensation schemes; its other registrations do not. Our page on regulated brokers works through the entity question across all nine.
The practical test is simple: find the entity named in your client agreement, look it up in that regulator's register, and confirm the licence is current. If the agreement names a company you cannot find in any register, that is the answer.
M-Pesa is the real dividing line
Of the nine, only Deriv publishes M-Pesa: 5 to 1,000 US dollars per transaction in each direction, marked instant both ways, alongside Airtel, MTN, Equitel and Tigo. Everyone else routes you to cards, bank transfers or e-wallets.
That difference is not cosmetic. Funding by card from Kenya means a currency conversion your bank prices, a cross-border transaction some issuers decline outright, and a withdrawal that must return to the same card. Mobile money removes all three steps and settles in minutes.
The limits matter as much as the method: 1,000 USD per transaction is generous by mobile money standards — most of Deriv's other African rails cap deposits at 150 — but it is still a per-transaction ceiling to plan around rather than discover. Our page on funding Deriv with M-Pesa covers the mechanics and the common refusals.
What to settle before you deposit anything
Whether the broker actually onboards Kenyan residents. We publish what each broker publishes, and none of them lists its accepted countries in a form we could verify — the answer appears when you reach the account-opening form, and it is worth reaching it before planning around a broker.
That the paying account is in your own name. Mobile money and card deposits from a third party are refused under anti-money-laundering rules at every regulated broker, which is why an agent offering to fund your account is offering you a problem rather than a service.
How the money comes back. Withdrawals generally return by the route they arrived, at least up to the deposited amount, so the deposit method is also the withdrawal method. Choosing it for convenience on the way in and discovering the constraint on the way out is the single most common complaint in this market.
And what a realistic first deposit is. The smallest position on EUR/USD moves about $5 for every fifty pips, so an account that can absorb a run of those is a different number from the broker's minimum. Our comparison of minimum deposits works that out across all nine.
Questions people ask
Is forex trading legal in Kenya?
Yes. The Capital Markets Authority licenses online forex brokers directly and publishes the holders in a public register — 14 non-dealing and 2 dealing when we checked on 24 August 2026. Trading with a broker licensed elsewhere is not illegal for you either, but it changes where a complaint goes.
Which brokers are licensed by the CMA?
Sixteen firms held one of the online forex licences when we checked, and none of the nine brokers we track is among them. The register at licensees.cma.or.ke is the authoritative list and is updated as licences are granted or withdrawn — check it there rather than in any comparison table, including ours.
Which brokers accept M-Pesa?
Of the nine we track, only Deriv publishes M-Pesa — 5 to 1,000 USD per transaction in both directions, marked instant. The rest publish cards, bank transfers and e-wallets, which means a currency conversion and a card that may decline the transaction.
Do I need a CMA-licensed broker?
You are not required to use one. What a local licence buys you is recourse: a Kenyan company under a Kenyan regulator, rather than a complaint routed to an authority in Belize or St Vincent. Whether that is worth narrowing your choice is your call, and it should be a deliberate one.
How much money do I need to start?
The broker minimums here run from about 1 USD to 100 USD, but the number that matters is what survives a losing run: the smallest EUR/USD position moves roughly $5 per fifty pips, so a workable account holds several of those and nothing you cannot lose entirely.
Can someone else deposit into my trading account?
No. Regulated brokers refuse third-party payments under anti-money-laundering rules, so the M-Pesa line or card must be in the same name as the trading account. Anyone offering to fund or trade the account for you is a risk, not a shortcut.