How to Sell Shares on the NSE in Kenya — and When the Money Reaches You

7 min read

Most guides, ours included, spend their time on how to buy shares on the NSE. Selling gets far less attention, and it is where people get caught out: an order that never filled because the price was wrong, a dividend missed by one day, or money that was expected the same afternoon and arrived the following week.

This is the whole sale, from the order to the payout.

Before you can sell anything

Your shares must be in a CDS account and available. Three things stop a sale before it starts:

• Paper certificates. Shares still held as a printed certificate cannot be traded. They must first be deposited into a CDS account — CDSC calls this immobilisation — and that takes time, so start it before you need the money.
• Pledged shares. If you used your shares as security for a loan, CDSC has marked them as pledged. They cannot be sold until the lender releases the pledge.
• An account you have lost touch with. If you have not traded in years and no longer know who your broker is, settle that first. Our guide to checking your CDS balance and statements covers how to find out what you hold and who holds it.

Step 1: Decide what you are selling and why

Write the reason down before you place the order. “I need the money in March”, “the business has changed”, “this has grown into half my portfolio” are reasons you can check later. “It dropped 4% this morning” usually is not.

Two timing points are worth knowing:

• Dividends follow the book. If a company has declared a dividend and you sell before the book closure date, the dividend goes to the buyer, not to you. Our guide to dividends in Kenya explains how those dates work.
• Thin counters move on small orders. A company that trades a few thousand shillings a day cannot absorb a large sell order without the price falling. Check what a company actually trades before you decide how to sell it.

Step 2: Place the sell order

You place a sell order the same way you placed the buy: through your broker’s app or online portal, by phone, or by email, depending on the broker. You tell them the company, the number of shares and the price.

Limit order

You name the price. “Sell 2,000 shares at KES 18.50 or better.” The order sits in the market until somebody is willing to pay that, and it may sit there all day and expire unfilled. This is the right default for a retail seller: you never get a worse price than the one you set.

Market order

You take whatever the market is currently paying. It fills quickly, but on a quiet counter the price you get can be well below the last price you saw quoted.

How your order gets matched

The exchange matches orders by price first, and between orders at the same price, by who got there first. A sell order below the best bid fills immediately; one above it waits its turn.

Orders can also fill partially — 800 of your 2,000 shares today, the rest tomorrow — and each fill is a trade in its own right, with its own charges. If you want everything gone at once, say so to your broker.

An order placed after the market closes queues for the next session. NSE trading hours explains what the market is doing at each point in the day.

Step 3: Settlement — when the money is actually yours

Kenyan equities settle on a T+3 basis. The trade happens on day T; the shares leave your CDS account and the cash is due three business days later. Weekends and public holidays are not business days, so a Thursday sale settles the following Tuesday.

After settlement the money sits in your broker’s client account. Getting it to your own bank account or M-Pesa is a second step, on your broker’s own timetable — some pay out the same day, others batch withdrawals. Ask your broker two questions and write the answers down:

1. How soon after settlement can I withdraw?
2. Where does the money go, and is there a withdrawal charge?

Step 4: Check the contract note

After every sale your broker sends a contract note: the shares sold, the price, every charge and the net amount due to you. It is the document to keep, and the one to check against what you expected. If the net is lower than you thought, the contract note will say why.

What a sale costs

The same charges apply to a sale as to a purchase:

Charge	What it is
Brokerage commission	Your broker’s fee, commonly around 1%–1.5%, often with a minimum per trade
VAT	16%, charged on the commission only
Statutory levies	NSE 0.12%, CMA 0.08%, CDSC 0.08%, Investor Compensation Fund 0.01% — 0.29% in total
Stamp duty	KES 2 for every KES 10,000 of trade value

NSE trading costs explained works through the arithmetic on real trade sizes. The short version: on a KES 100,000 sale the charges are small; on a KES 3,000 sale the minimum commission can eat several percent of the proceeds, which is one reason selling in dribs and drabs is expensive.

Tax when you sell

Gains on shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange are exempt from capital gains tax. You do not pay tax on the profit when you sell them.

That exemption is for listed shares. Unlisted shares and most other property are a different matter, and if you are selling anything outside the exchange, ask a tax adviser rather than assuming.

Special cases worth knowing

• Joint accounts. Both holders normally have to sign the sale instruction.
• A deceased relative’s shares. The shares do not pass automatically. The estate has to be administered — a grant of representation, then a transfer into the beneficiary’s own CDS account — before anything can be sold.
• Shares you have forgotten about. If dividends on an old holding were never collected, the money may have been handed to the state’s unclaimed assets authority. See unclaimed dividends in Kenya.
• Anyone offering to buy your shares privately. A stranger who offers cash for your CDS holding, or asks for your CDS number and password to “help you sell”, is not a broker. Trades go through a licensed trading participant and nobody else.

Four mistakes that cost real money

• Selling with a market order on a thin counter. You find out the price after the event.
• Selling the day before book closure. The buyer gets the dividend you waited all year for.
• Selling in small pieces. Each piece pays the minimum commission again.
• Assuming the cash is instant. It is T+3 plus your broker’s payout, and it will not beat an emergency.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to get money after selling shares in Kenya?

The trade settles three business days later (T+3). Your broker then pays the proceeds to your bank account or M-Pesa on its own schedule, so expect roughly three to five working days in total, and longer across a public holiday.

Can I sell only some of my shares?

Yes. Since August 2025 the NSE allows trading in single shares, so you can sell any number you hold — though minimum commissions make very small sales poor value.

Do I pay tax when I sell NSE shares at a profit?

No. Shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange are exempt from capital gains tax. Dividends are taxed separately, at source.

What if my shares are still in a paper certificate?

They have to be deposited into a CDS account before they can be sold. Take the certificate and your ID to a stockbroker, who will open the account and immobilise the shares for you.

Can I cancel a sell order?

Yes, as long as it has not been matched. Tell your broker immediately. Once a trade is executed it cannot be undone.

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Education, not investment advice. Charges and timings differ between brokers — your contract note and your broker’s own terms are the figures to trust. Want a hand? Ipahco offers a one-to-one consultation.