Kenya Company Lookup: One Service, Four Registries

A Kenya company lookup runs through the Business Registration Service (BRS), and its services are reached through the eCitizen platform, where the BRS companies registry services sit at brs.ecitizen.go.ke. This guide covers what the BRS is mandated to oversee, the three statutes its Companies Registry administers, and one change to how Kenyan entities are named and registered. If you need the Kenyan population rather than one company at a time, the Kenya company directory covers the same registered entities with industry, size and contact breakdowns attached, and the Kenya business database is the same file described as a dataset.

Kenya company lookup: the short version

• Kenya's Business Registration Service (BRS) is mandated to oversee four registries at once: the Companies Registry, the Movable Property Security Rights Registry (Collateral Registry), the Insolvency (Official Receivers) Registry and the Hire Purchase Registry.
• A reader checking a Kenyan counterparty's security position is not going to a different institution from the one that registers the company.
• The Companies Registry administers three statutes: one for companies, one for business names, and one for limited liability partnerships.
• Name reservation and registration are one merged step: three preferred names go in with the full application.

Four registries under one service

The BRS states its mandate in one sentence, and the sentence is the page:

"Business Registration Service (BRS) is mandated to oversee the operations of the Companies Registry, Movable Property Security Rights Registry (Collateral Registry), Insolvency (Official Receivers) Registry and the Hire Purchase Registry."

Four registries, named as the BRS names them:

• the Companies Registry — the register of companies, and the one this guide is about
• the Movable Property Security Rights Registry, which the BRS also calls the Collateral Registry
• the Insolvency Registry, which the BRS names together with the Official Receivers
• the Hire Purchase Registry

The practical consequence is about where a question goes. What a Kenyan company is, what is charged over its movable assets, whether it is in insolvency and what it holds on hire purchase are four different questions — and all four sit with the same body. A reader checking a Kenyan counterparty's security position is not going to a different institution from the one that registers the company.

This page describes none of the three non-company registries. It does not say what they contain, how they are searched, or whether they are public. The mandate sentence names them; it does not describe them, and neither does this guide.

"Sole custodian" — the BRS's own words

The BRS describes its role this way:

"The Business Registration Service (BRS), is the sole custodian of a list of all companies and information for entities registered in Kenya."

That is the BRS's claim about its role, and it is attributed as such. It is a statement about custody. It is not a statement that every Kenyan entity can be found in one searchable place — that is a different proposition, and nothing on this page establishes it.

Three statutes, one Companies Registry

The Companies Registry states the laws it administers:

"The Companies Registry administers the following laws; (i) The Companies Act, 2015; (ii) The Registration of Business Names Act, Cap 499 Laws of Kenya; and (iii) The Limited Liability Partnerships Act."

Three families of registration, then, under one registry:

• companies, under the Companies Act, 2015
• business names, under the Registration of Business Names Act, Cap 499 Laws of Kenya
• limited liability partnerships, under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act

Where the Australia company lookup guide describes companies and business names in separate registers under one regulator, in Kenya one registry administers all three statutes — which is not a claim that the two countries' entity types correspond.

What a Kenyan company register entry contains

A self-contained summary. Kenya's Business Registration Service (BRS) is mandated to oversee the operations of the Companies Registry, the Movable Property Security Rights Registry (Collateral Registry), the Insolvency (Official Receivers) Registry and the Hire Purchase Registry. The BRS describes itself as the sole custodian of a list of all companies and information for entities registered in Kenya. The Companies Registry administers the Companies Act, 2015, the Registration of Business Names Act, Cap 499 Laws of Kenya, and the Limited Liability Partnerships Act. BRS services are reached through the eCitizen platform, and signing up requires an ID number for citizens and residents. Name reservation and business registration have been merged into one step, in which the applicant submits a choice of three preferred names together with the full application online. The Companies Registry can be contacted at registrar@brs.go.ke. This summary does not describe the fields a Kenyan register search returns, what a search costs, or whether bulk access is available, because none was established from the BRS's own pages on the date shown.

One step for the name and the registration

The BRS states a process change in its own words:

"The Name Reservation and Business Registration process have been MERGED into one easy step. Submit your choice of 3 preferred names and the full application online."

The detail that matters is the three preferred names. They are submitted with the full application, not before it. A Kenyan registration therefore carries a choice between names inside it, rather than following a separate reservation.

eCitizen is the door

BRS services are reached through eCitizen, and signing up requires an ID number for citizens and residents.

That is as far as this page goes. What a non-resident must do to sign up is not stated here, because it was not established from the BRS's own pages — and it is precisely what a foreign reader will want to know.

Where a Kenya lookup stops

On what a search returns: this page describes no field of a Kenyan register record. None was established from the BRS's own pages on the date shown.

On cost: no figures appear on this page, and none was established from the BRS's own pages.

On bulk access: this page does not state whether the BRS offers bulk access or a public API. Neither was established from the BRS's own pages.

On the other three registries: named, not described — see above.

On access from abroad: sign-up requires an ID number for citizens and residents; the route for anyone else is not stated here.

For anything the guide does not cover, the Companies Registry gives a contact address: registrar@brs.go.ke.

For other registers in sub-Saharan Africa, see the Nigeria company lookup guide and the South Africa company lookup guide.

Where the question is a population rather than a company, a firmographic directory covers the same registered entities with classification, size and contact data attached and queryable as a set; the Africa company directory breaks the regional file down by market.

Data quality pitfalls to avoid in Kenya

Reading "sole custodian" as "one search finds everything". It is the BRS's statement about custody, not about a single searchable index.

Treating the four registries as four institutions. The BRS is mandated to oversee all four.

Assuming a company record answers the security question. The mandate names the Movable Property Security Rights Registry as a registry of its own.

Treating every registration as a company. The Companies Registry administers three statutes: companies, business names, and limited liability partnerships.

Assuming eCitizen access works the same way for everyone. Sign-up requires an ID number for citizens and residents; this page does not establish the route for anyone else.

A repeatable Kenya company lookup workflow

1. Decide which question you are asking — the company, its security position, insolvency, or hire purchase. All four registries sit with the BRS.
2. Identify which statute the entity is registered under: a company, a business name, or a limited liability partnership.
3. Reach BRS services through eCitizen, with an ID number if you are a citizen or resident.
4. If you are neither, confirm the sign-up route with the BRS before relying on eCitizen access; the Companies Registry's address is registrar@brs.go.ke.
5. Read "sole custodian" as the BRS's description of its role, not as a guarantee that one search covers every entity.

Frequently asked questions

Who keeps Kenya's company register?

The Business Registration Service (BRS), which describes itself as the sole custodian of a list of all companies and information for entities registered in Kenya. Its Companies Registry administers the Companies Act, 2015, the Registration of Business Names Act and the Limited Liability Partnerships Act.

Does the BRS handle more than companies?

Yes. The BRS is mandated to oversee the Companies Registry, the Movable Property Security Rights Registry (Collateral Registry), the Insolvency (Official Receivers) Registry and the Hire Purchase Registry. This page does not describe the three non-company registries.

How is a company name reserved in Kenya?

The BRS states that name reservation and business registration have been merged into one step: you submit your choice of three preferred names together with the full application online.

Can I use BRS services without a Kenyan ID?

Signing up on eCitizen requires an ID number for citizens and residents. What applies to anyone else is not established by this page; the Companies Registry can be contacted at registrar@brs.go.ke.

Does "sole custodian" mean every Kenyan entity is in one search?

No such claim is made here. "Sole custodian" is the BRS's description of its role over the list of companies and information for registered entities; it says nothing about how that list is searched.

Source Register

Every sentence quoted above is the publisher's own wording, read on the date shown. No amount appears anywhere in this page's prose.

This page does not state how Kenyan register records are treated under data protection law, whether automated bulk access or a public API exists, or whether older records were migrated from paper and how completely. All three come from commercial sources and are not established here. The data protection point matters most, because if it holds, it is a compliance fact for any business that processes BRS records.

The readings that are InfobelPRO's rather than the BRS's: that a reader checking a counterparty's security position is not going to a different institution from the one that registers the company; that "sole custodian" is a statement about custody, not about a single search; and that a Kenyan registration carries a choice between names inside it. Those are ours. The contrast with Australia notes a difference in arrangement and does not claim the entity types correspond.