Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

This is a working paper intended merely to provide background for the seminar discussion and to make available some of the basic data which I have collected. It consists mainly of twenty pages of balance sheets for the period 1964 - 1971 for various non-bank financial sectors. It also includes a brief history and description of the various private financial institutions. Since most people are aware of the basic functions of the large public institutions, only balance sheets have been provided for these sectors. Also, no figures on the commercial banks and the Post Office Savings Bank have been reproduced here, since this information is already available in various statical publications. It is hoped that the seminar discussion, taking this basic information as backgrounds will deal with the broad trends in the Kenyan financial system over the past decade and, in particular, with the events leading up to the recent foreign exchange crisis and the response of the system to that crisis. Since the seminar will be discussing a work in progress, any conclusions drawn will be tentative and impressionistic but, I hope, still useful.