Updated Kenya 2024 Series – a Step Up in Security

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) derives its mandate from Article 231 of Kenya’s Constitution and Section 22 of the CBK Act. Among these responsibilities, CBK must ensure and facilitate adequate and secure money supply in the economy. In fulfilling this mandate, the CBK took steps to guarantee the supply of banknotes by procuring an updated version from Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) Currency Technology.

Kenya’s banknotes are denominated in 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 Kenyan Shillings (KSh or KES). The current series was originally produced by De La Rue, but following the closure of its printworks near Nairobi, the contract for the new notes was awarded to G+D.

The main change to the banknotes, which have been progressively released into the market from August 2024, is the replacement of the colourshifting threads with Louisenthal’s latest version of RollingStar®.

Overall design remains unchanged

To ensure public familiarity and minimise uncertainty, CBK maintained the overall design of the 2024 series banknotes to be similar to the 2019 series. Additionally, CBK introduced a state-of-the-art security thread, the RollingStar® i+ thread in the full series. On the back of the banknotes, CBK opted to enhance the properties of the iridescent band to illuminate UV properties when fluoresced.