Kenya’s diaspora sent home USD 394.2 million in remittances in May 2026, down from USD 397.8 million in April, the Central Bank of Kenya said in its weekly bulletin. The figure marks a 0.9 percent decline and the second consecutive monthly drop following a peak near USD 456 million in March.
The 12-month cumulative total to May 2026 stood at USD 5,008 million, down 0.5 percent from USD 5,033 million over the same period in 2025. The decline interrupts a run in which the rolling 12-month average rose each month since early 2024, when it stood near USD 408 million.
CBK data show monthly inflows climbed from a low of USD 310 million in early 2023 to the March 2026 peak, before falling in April and May. The bank’s bulletin attributes the longer-term rise to remittances acting as a source of foreign exchange and support for the balance of payments. The bulletin did not give a reason for the two-month decline.
Background: What a Separate Household Survey Found
For context on how remittance money moves and where it lands once it reaches Kenya, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the Central Bank of Kenya and Financial Sector Deepening Kenya published the 2025 Remittances Household Survey, covering June 2024 to May 2025. It put total household receipts at KSh 931.8 billion over that period, a separate measure from the CBK’s monthly USD bulletin and based on a household survey rather than bank reporting.
The survey reported the United States as the source of 43.5 percent of inflows, Germany and Australia as the next largest sources, and mobile money as the channel recipients named most often when asked how they last received funds, at 46.5 percent, ahead of banks at 34.9 percent. It found 73 percent of recipients spent remittance cash on food and household goods, and 83.3 percent cited transaction costs as their main complaint with the system.
NCBA on the Current Account Outlook
NCBA Market Research linked the remittance slowdown to the current account outlook in commentary following the Monetary Policy Committee’s latest meeting. The note read:
“On the external sector, the committee appears optimistic, projecting the current account to weaken slightly to 3.0% of GDP at year-end primarily on account of low exports and services receipt and slowdown in remittances inflows. However, we project further deterioration of the current account towards 3.5% in December on account of prolonged impacts from the Middle East war.”
The gap between the MPC’s 3.0 percent projection and NCBA’s 3.5 percent estimate centers on how long Middle East war effects continue to weigh on exports, services receipts and remittance inflows through year-end.
What Comes Next
The CBK publishes remittance data in its weekly bulletin, with the next release due to cover June 2026. Whether the April-May decline continues will depend on remittance flows from the United States and Gulf states, the two regions that supply the largest share of Kenya’s inflows according to the household survey, and on how the current account trends NCBA flagged play out.
