Law & Regulation
Investment Promotion Act, 2004
The Act establishes Kenya's statutory investment-promotion and facilitation framework. It creates an investment authority and an investment-certificate process intended to coordinate licences, approvals and investor assistance. It is a facilitation statute, not a universal exemption from sector, land, environmental, tax, competition or immigration law.
Legal Significance
What This Instrument Does
It mandates the investment authority to promote and facilitate investment, sets eligibility and procedural rules for investment certificates, coordinates engagement with other public bodies and provides defined facilitation benefits. The certificate operates within the wider legal system: it does not replace licences that another competent authority must issue or remove continuing compliance duties.
Why It Matters
For infrastructure sponsors, the Act is relevant at market-entry and development stage, when a project may require coordinated approvals, investment facilitation and engagement with multiple agencies. Its practical value is procedural and institutional. It should not be described as guaranteeing project bankability, fiscal incentives or sector authorisations that must arise elsewhere.
Key Provisions
- Investment authority and mandate
Identifies the public institution responsible for investment promotion, facilitation and investor support.
- Investment-certificate eligibility
Defines the statutory gateway to certificate-based facilitation, subject to the applicable criteria.
- Application and assessment
Provides the process by which proposed investments are evaluated for certification.
- Certificate content and conditions
Permits the certificate to state the approved investment and applicable conditions rather than functioning as an unrestricted approval.
- Licence facilitation
Enables coordination with licensing bodies while preserving their substantive statutory mandates.
- Entry-permit facilitation
Supports qualifying investor or expatriate personnel processes, subject to immigration law.
- Investor assistance and aftercare
Supports liaison, information and problem-solving during establishment and operation.
- Monitoring and information
Enables oversight of certified investments and collection of information relevant to compliance.
- Variation, suspension or revocation
Protects the integrity of the regime where conditions cease to be met or information is defective.
- Institutional cooperation
Provides a basis for coordination across government without reallocating each regulator's legal authority.
When You Would Use This
Structuring entry into Kenya
Testing certificate eligibility
Mapping a project's approval pathway
Engaging the investment authority
Assessing certificate conditions
Explaining which facilitation benefits do—and do not—follow from certification
InfraLex Relevance
This is a Primary / Framework Instrument for Foreign Investment alongside FIPA. It explains the facilitation side of the investment framework. Companies, tax, land, environmental and sector rules are transactional interfaces, not additional topic roles for this record.
Legal Framework Position
- Foreign InvestmentPrimary / Framework Instrument
Related / Implementing Instruments
Instrument Overview
- Official Citation
- Act No. 6 of 2004
- Instrument Type
- Law / Act
- Source Language
- English
- Last Verified
- 6 September 2026