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400 wealthy Kenyans fall off dollar-millionaires list
The latest ranking marks the third successive decline in the number of Kenyan dollar millionaires, with 500 having fallen off the list in 2024, further shrinking the basket of the super-wealthy.
The number of Kenyan dollar millionaires dropped by 400 in the 18 months to June amid pointers that the rich moved cash abroad amid uncertainty caused by Kenya’s slowing economy and last year’s deadly youth-led protests.
The pool of high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), described as individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million (Sh129.2 million), dropped to 6,800 in June from 6, 800 in December 2023 and 7, 700 in 2022, according to Henley & Partners, which tracks the rich through wealth managers.
This saw Kenya drop to position five from four among countries with the highest concentration of dollar millionaires in Africa after being leapfrogged by Morocco.
South Africa had 41,000 dollar millionaires, followed by Egypt at 14,800, Morocco (7,500) and Nigeria (7,200).
The number of Kenyan centi-millionaires or those with a minimum net worth of $100 million (Sh12.9 billion) remained unchanged at 16 in the period to June, having grown from 15 in 2021.
Henley and Partners did not provide reasons why hundreds of Kenyans fell off the exclusive list of dollar millionaires.
But a recent separate report indicated that the rich moved cash abroad amid uncertainty triggered by Keya’s slowing economy and youth-led protests, hurting fresh investments.
This comes amid the push by the government to entice rich individuals and their families who have billions of shillings worth of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens.
The global private financial wealth is held in offshore bank accounts and non-financial assets such as real estate, gold, yachts and racehorses, which are outside the remit of local fund managers.
More than 50 people were killed when the youth-led marches broke out last June, forcing President William Ruto to abandon tax hikes worth Sh346 billion.
The shifts in the rich individuals’ portfolio emerged in a year when Kenya’s economy grew at the slowest pace since the Covid-19 pandemic four years ago, hobbled by floods, costly bank loans and disruptions that followed the anti-government protests against the Finance Bill.
The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) — a measure of all economic activities— grew at 4.7 percent in 2024 compared with 5.7 percent a year earlier, according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
The growth was the softest since 2020, when the economy contracted 0.3 percent because of shutdowns and travel curbs to contain the spread of Coronavirus infections.
Kenya’s economy grew 4.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, a similar pace to the same period a year ago, driven by growth in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing.
The latest ranking marks the third successive decline in the number of Kenyan dollar millionaires, with 500 having fallen off the list last year, further shrinking the basket of the super-wealthy.
The number of dollar millionaires in Kenya peaked at 8,500 in 2021 when the economy emerged strongly from the Covid-19 pandemic to grow by 7.6 percent, which was the highest growth rate in 11 years.
The number of Kenyan centi-millionaires ($100 million) remained unchanged at 16 in 2025.
In total, Africa counts 25 billionaires, 348 centi-millionaires, and 122,500 millionaires from 21 dollar billionaires, 342 centi-millionaires and 135,200 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) with a liquid investable wealth of $1 million.
Kenya’s pool of high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) has favoured offshore European markets such as the United Kingdom, but the Middle East is also emerging as a growing destination for investors diversifying from the local market.
They have diversified asset classes away from residential properties that also include holiday homes and tapping investments such as real estate investment trusts (REITs), Treasury bonds and money market funds.
The asset classes are deemed to offer stability in the face of market fluctuations, while REITs are seen as more accessible and a liquid entry to real estate investments.
HNWIs are also favouring investments in high-growth sectors, including technology, agriculture and renewable energy.
Henley & Partners and Knight Frank tracking of the rich asset movements is based on insights from private bankers as well as wealth advisers and managers who handle the super-rich people.
