Since November 2023, a private company or company limited by guarantee that has neither a Kenya-qualified company secretary nor a director resident in Kenya has been required to appoint something most business owners have never heard of: a “contact person.” It is a genuinely new obligation, and it is one of the more commonly missed compliance requirements in this batch of corporate reforms, because it was introduced quietly, through an anti-money laundering amendment rather than a headline company law change.
Where this comes from
Section 243A of the Companies Act 2015 was introduced by the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism Financing Laws (Amendment) Act, 2023, in force since 15 September 2023, with compliance required by 14 November 2023. The purpose is to make sure every Kenyan company has at least one identifiable, physically reachable natural person the Registrar and other authorities can actually contact, which matters for beneficial ownership transparency and Kenya’s broader effort to meet international anti-money laundering standards.
Who this actually catches
You need a contact person only if both of the following are true: your company does not have a company secretary qualified in Kenya, and none of your directors are resident in Kenya. A private company only becomes legally required to have a company secretary at all once its paid-up share capital reaches KES 5,000,000, so many smaller private companies have neither a secretary nor, if the owners live abroad, a resident director. This describes a genuinely common situation, foreign-owned subsidiaries, diaspora-founded companies, and holding structures with an entirely non-resident board, more often than most founders in that position realise.
What the contact person actually is
The contact person must be a natural person with a permanent residence in Kenya. Their role is to maintain the company’s critical records, including directorship, shareholding, and beneficial ownership information, and to be available as the point of contact for the Registrar and other authorities. The company must lodge a notice of the appointment with the Registrar, giving the contact person’s name and residential address. The role does not need to come with any management authority over the company, it is a compliance and record-keeping function, not an executive one.
The easiest way to avoid the obligation entirely
The requirement only applies where a company has neither a Kenya-qualified company secretary nor a Kenya-resident director. Appointing either one, even where your paid-up capital is below the KES 5,000,000 threshold that would otherwise make a company secretary mandatory, removes the need for a separate contact person altogether. For many companies with an entirely foreign board, adding one Kenya-resident director is the simpler fix, both practically and because it puts genuine local oversight into the company rather than a record-keeping role alone.
