Markets DeskReceipt
Kenya's diaspora money: North America sent US$245m less in nine months, and the US tax is only 1%
Our verdict · Opinion
In our view, the US remittance tax is too small and too narrow to explain an 11.19% fall in money from North America on its own; the bigger, steadier cost for most senders is still the fee, and the shilling can absorb this fall, but a family that depends on one relative in America cannot.
Kenyans abroad sent home US$3.769bn from January to September 2026, US$5.2m less than a year earlier. North America sent US$245.2m less, down 11.19%. The new US tax is 1% and applies only to transfers paid in cash or similar paper. The average fee on US$200 from the US was 5.2% in the last World Bank survey in our file.