knbs ke.knbs.balance-of-trade.annual annual

Balance of Trade, Overall and with COMESA.

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VERSION v2026-08-25

UPDATED 12d ago

CHECKED 1d ago

COVERAGE 2015 - 2024

SHAPE 140 × 8

SIZE 6.2 KB

FREQUENCY annual

PIPELINE automated

LICENSE Not stated

SOURCE www.knbs.or.ke

Kenya's whole merchandise trade account in five line items for the ten years to 2024, printed twice: once for all trading partners and once for COMESA. 140 observations across exports split into domestic and re-exports, imports split into commercial and government, the balance between them and their sum.

Kenya's exports have paid for between a third and two fifths of its imports in every year of the decade. The ratio runs from 33.0 per cent in 2019 to 41.1 per cent in 2024, a span of 8.1 points, and it does not trend. Exports grew 90.3 per cent over the decade and imports 71.1, so the gap narrowed slightly in proportion while widening in money: the deficit went from KSh 997.0 billion to KSh 1,594.0 billion.

COMESA is where the account turns the other way. Kenya sold KSh 302.1 billion to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa in 2024 and bought KSh 134.9 billion, a surplus of KSh 167.2 billion, and it has run a surplus there in every year here. The region takes between 27.2 and 31.1 per cent of everything Kenya exports, a share as steady as the import ratio.

Two rows move sharply in 2024 and both are provisional. Re-exports, goods that arrive in Kenya and leave again, sat between KSh 63.5 billion and KSh 101.6 billion for nine years and are KSh 180.2 billion in 2024, a rise of 77.3 per cent in one year. Government imports rose 76.9 per cent in the same year, from KSh 62.5 billion to KSh 110.5 billion. Two unrelated series rising by almost the same proportion in the provisional column is worth knowing before either is read as a trend.

Figures are in thousands of Kenya shillings, as the source prints them. The trade balance is negative for all partners in every year and positive for COMESA in every year, so the value column spans both signs.

COMESA imports are published where the source prints them, as an "Imports" row carrying no group, because Table 6.4 does not split imports into commercial and government the way Table 6.3 does. Naming that row "Total" to match the other table would publish a label KNBS did not print.

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WHAT KENYA BUYS AND SELLS

Kenya bought between 2.4 and 3.0 times what it sold in every year of the decade, and the narrowest gap is the most recent.

Merchandise imports against exports, all trading partners · KSh · 2015 to 2024

SOURCE: Kenya National Bureau of Statistics · Balance of Trade, Overall and with COMESA (annual) · Updated 2026-08-25

#	year	period_start	scope	group	item	value	unit	status
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COLUMN	TYPE	DESCRIPTION	UNIT
year	int64	Calendar year the account covers	-
period_start	date	First day of that calendar year	-
scope	string	Which partners the account covers: all for every trading partner, comesa for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa	-
group	string	The block a line belongs to, Exports or Imports, or empty for the balance, the volume and COMESA's unsplit import total	-
item	string	The line itself. Total appears twice under all, once closing each block, which is why group is needed to tell them apart	-
value	float64	The figure as printed, in thousands of Kenya shillings	-
unit	string	Always ksh_thousand	-
status	string	final, or provisional for a year the source marks with an asterisk	-

CITATION · APA 7

imibare contributors. (2026). Balance of Trade, Overall and with COMESA [Data set]. imibare. v2026-08-25. https://imibare.org/datasets/ke.knbs.balance-of-trade.annual