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Can you sit on a board there?
Pick a market. You get the residency test, the nationality test, the work-authorisation position, the appointment steps in order, and the frictions that actually delay appointments — each cited to the instrument that creates it.
Choose a market
No residency or nationality requirement applies to a director of a Kenyan company. Work authorisation is required only for executive and resident roles.
- Residency test
- None.
- Nationality test
- None.
- Work authorisation
- A non-resident director attending board meetings travels on a business visa. Executive and resident roles require a work permit.
- Board language
- Board process is in English.
- Tenure limit once appointed
- The Code addresses long service through periodic reassessment and board evaluation rather than a fixed statutory cap.
- Time commitment
- Typically 4–6 board meetings a year plus committee cycles.
- What a seat pays
- Variable by sector; banking and telecoms boards pay well above the listed-company norm, and fees are disclosed in the annual report.
- Tax on your fees
- Directors' fees are Kenyan-source income with withholding for non-residents; treaty relief varies.
The appointment steps, in order
- 1Consent to act and filing of the change of directors with the Business Registration Service
- 2For an issuer, disclosure to the CMA and NSE and inclusion in the annual governance report
- 3Beneficial-ownership and director particulars filings as required under the Companies Act
- 4For a bank or insurer, Central Bank of Kenya or IRA fitness and propriety approval
What actually gets in the way
- Board process is in English, which removes the language barrier, but regional governance norms differ markedly between the East African markets a Kenyan board oversees
- Directors' duties are codified under the Companies Act 2015 and are enforced more actively than the market's size suggests
- This regime map has not yet had a second verification pass — confirm the current Code provisions before relying on them
The instruments behind these answers
- Code of Corporate Governance Practices for Issuers of Securities to the Public 2015 — Sets board composition expectations including a defined proportion of independent and non-executive directors, separation of the chairman and chief executive roles, mandatory board committees and an annual governance audit. (Capital Markets Authority, Kenya)
- Companies Act 2015 — Governs company formation, directors' duties — which are codified — and shareholder rights. It imposes no residency or nationality requirement on directors. (Republic of Kenya)
- CMA governance scorecard and annual reporting — Requires issuers to report annually against the Code and subjects them to a governance assessment the Authority publishes, which functions as the main enforcement mechanism. (Capital Markets Authority, Kenya)
- Central Bank of Kenya prudential guidelines — Impose additional board composition, independence and fitness requirements on banks, including minimum independent representation and committee chairmanship. (Central Bank of Kenya)
Reviewed against primary sources in September 2026. This is governance decision-support, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and transitional provisions frequently apply — verify against the primary instrument before you rely on it.
Eligibility is only the first question
Being allowed to sit on a board there is not the same as being read for one.
The mobility index answers the second question: whether your record is legible to a board in that market, whether you hold what it is currently short of, and whether you can do the job in the language its board works in.