Monopoly and competition: the Kenyan commercial banks at the end of the colonial period (1954–1963)

The article analyses the competition between commercial banks in colonial Kenya for the control of government accounts and their attempts to end the monopoly of the National Bank of India acting as the government bank. Banking institutions in colonial Kenya have been categorised by the current investigations on economic and business history as immobile, conservative institutions involved in collusion. However, using unexplored archival material, this article challenges the existing literature showing the limits of collusive practices, the dynamic competition between commercial banks in a time of economic and financial expansion and the important role of the colonial government in shaping the rivalry. The study’s objective is to reconsider the performance of financial institutions during the colonial era and their influence over the government. In doing so, this investigation concludes that the absence of consistent legislation over the banks and the British government’s limited influence in the colony allowed local interests to prevail over the objectives of Barclays DCO, altering the expansion process of the banks during the final years of colonial rule.