Shares vs money market funds vs T-bills

The three in one table

Shares

A share is part-ownership of a company. If Safaricom earns more, its dividend and its share price tend to rise; if it earns less, both can fall. Over years, well-run companies have paid rising dividends, but over any given month the price is as likely to be down as up. The market board shows how uneven a single day can be.

• Typically used for money you do not need for several years, where you can sit through a bad year without selling.
• Watch for concentration: a portfolio of one or two shares moves with those companies' news, not the market.
• Cost about 2.1 % of each trade in and out (see fees).

Money market funds

A money market fund (MMF) pools savers' money and lends it short term: fixed deposits with banks, Treasury bills, commercial paper. The fund manager quotes a daily yield, interest accrues daily and the unit price usually stays at KES 1, so in normal times your balance goes up before fees and tax. That is not a guarantee: the Collective Investment Schemes Regulations↗ (regulation 164) require fund adverts to warn that the price and the income can go down as well as up. Yields move with Treasury bill rates, usually a little above or below them.

• Typically used for an emergency fund, money you will need within a year, and the cash you keep aside while deciding what to buy.
• Watch for the management fee and the difference between the gross and net yield in adverts.
• Regulation: funds are approved by the CMA under the Collective Investment Schemes Regulations↗, which require the fund manager to publish unit prices daily or at the intervals set in the fund's information memorandum (regulation 52).

Treasury bills

A Treasury bill is a short loan to the Government of Kenya. You bid at the weekly auction through the Central Bank's↗ DhowCSD platform, pay a discounted amount, and receive the full face value at maturity in 91, 182 or 364 days. The rate is set at each auction and published by the CBK, so you know your return the day you invest.

• Typically used for a fixed sum you can lock away for three months to a year and want to be certain of.
• Watch for the KES 50,000 minimum, the wait for the auction result, and the fact that your money is tied up until maturity unless you sell on the secondary market.
• Bonds: longer government paper (2 to 25 years) pays interest twice a year; infrastructure bonds are tax-free, which is why they are oversubscribed.

Putting them together

Many people hold all three in some proportion: a money market fund for the money that must be there tomorrow, Treasury bills or bonds for the money with a date on it, and shares for the money that can wait. The share of each depends on when you need the money, not on which one has had the strongest month. Tax rates are as at September 2026 (PwC Kenya withholding tax table↗, reviewed 17 July 2026).