A Kenyan lawmaker, Caroli Omondi, has proposed a new law—the Central Bank of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2025—that would make it illegal for businesses with physical locations to reject cash for transactions under $775.
The bill comes with fines and potential lawsuits for non-compliance.The bill is designed to protect everyday people in Kenya—many of whom are still dependent on physical cash.
As the country becomes more digital, those without access to smartphones, bank accounts, or mobile money platforms risk being excluded from basic services and daily transactions.
The bill tries to make the economy fairer by making sure people who don’t use digital money can still buy things with cash. This helps reduce inequality and keeps more people involved in the economy.Kenya’s mobile money penetration is 78.9% with 40 million users.
The new law could affect 8.6 million people, benefiting the unbanked but potentially increasing costs for businesses handling cash, and slowing down the use of digital tools that help the economy grow faster.So, it’s a trade-off between including everyone and moving forward with technology.
Kenya is often praised for its digital economy, especially its mobile money system, M-Pesa, which allows millions to send and receive money without a bank account. Digital payments are now standard even in small shops and on public transport.
Government services—from national park fees to birth registrations—are also only paid online. Kenya’s digital payment market is projected to reach US$14.5 billion by 2028. But that progress has also created a digital divide.Many businesses adopted cashless systems to reduce theft and increase efficiency. This bill would force them to go back, at least partly.
The cash mandate debate comes at a time when Kenya is rethinking its broader economic strategy, including how it funds its national budget.
In its latest fiscal plans, the government announced a break from heavy reliance on IMF loans, choosing instead to focus on domestic resource mobilisation.
Ensuring inclusivity in the payment system—by safeguarding access to cash—may be a politically strategic move to rally grassroots support as the country shifts toward more self-reliant, locally anchored growth policies.
The proposed Central Bank amendment also intersects with Kenya’s growing reliance on the private sector to fuel GDP growth in 2025. As businesses become key engines of economic expansion, the new law could add friction—particularly for retailers and SMEs that have embraced digital-only operations for efficiency.
Omondi warns that putting everything on digital rails is risky. He points to the July 2024 U.S. outage, which shut down electronic payments and disrupted lives. If Kenya faced such a breakdown, millions would struggle to buy food, medicine, or transport.
The Central Bank of Kenya—an advocate of digital payments—has not yet commented. The bill, if passed, could slow digital adoption, but it highlights a larger issue: in the rush toward innovation, are the most vulnerable being left behind?
This figures in this piece were originally reported in local currency. We used a rate of Ksh 129.5 /$1
