Kenya as a respondent in investment arbitration

Treaty and convention status

Kenya signed the ICSID Convention on 24 May 1966 and deposited its ratification on 3 January 1967. The Convention entered into force for Kenya on 2 February 1967 ¹.

Kenya acceded to the New York Convention on 10 February 1989, with effect from 11 May 1989 ². The UNCITRAL status page records a declaration that Kenya will apply the Convention only to the recognition and enforcement of awards made in the territory of another contracting state. No commercial reservation is recorded ².

The four ICSID cases rest on three instruments as listed by ICSID: contracts in World Duty Free and WalAm Energy, the United Kingdom Kenya BIT of 1999 in Cortec, and the Switzerland Kenya BIT of 2006 in Travizory ^{3,4 7}.

ICSID cases with Kenya as respondent

The table lists every case the ICSID case search returned with Kenya as respondent on 22 October 2026, with the outcome as ICSID records it and, where a published report was found, the result ³.

World Duty Free (2006)

World Duty Free brought a contract claim over a 1989 duty free concession agreement ^3,8. As summarised by Lise Johnson for IISD Investment Treaty News, the tribunal found that the claimant made a covert payment to President Daniel arap Moi to obtain the 1989 agreement. It held that the claimant had no right to pursue or recover under any of its claims, on grounds of public policy against contracts obtained by bribery ⁸. This site's case record sets out the claim, the tribunal and the award in detail.

Cortec Mining (2018)

The Cortec claimants challenged the revocation of Special Mining Licence 351 ⁵. As reported by Xiaoxia Lin for IISD Investment Treaty News on 21 December 2018, the tribunal upheld its jurisdiction but held that the ICSID Convention and the BIT protect only lawful investments. It found that an environmental impact assessment approval was a condition for the licence under Kenyan law and that the claimants did not have one ⁵.

Kenya alleged corruption. The tribunal did not accept that allegation, finding the witness evidence unconvincing, and found no bad faith by the claimants ⁵. It dismissed all claims and ordered the claimants to pay all ICSID costs and half of Kenya's legal costs. The reduction in Kenya's recovery was based in part on the unsupported corruption allegation ⁵.

ICSID registered the claimants' application for annulment on 19 March 2019. The ad hoc committee, chaired by D. Brian King, issued its decision on 19 March 2021 ⁴. The text of that decision was not reviewed for this page.

WalAm Energy (2020)

WalAm held a geothermal licence for the Suswa concession, issued by Kenya's Ministry of Energy on 5 September 2007 ⁶. As summarised by Maria Bisila Torao for IISD Investment Treaty News in March 2021, the tribunal found the licence valid but held that its forfeiture was lawful. It found that WalAm had done no physical work for a continuous six-month period. It dismissed all claims ⁶.

The tribunal ordered WalAm to pay Kenya US$648,857.75 for its share of the arbitration costs, plus EUR 3,586,039.28 and US$252,262.82, covering 75 percent of Kenya's legal fees and expenses ⁶. WalAm applied for annulment on 13 November 2020. ICSID records that the ad hoc committee discontinued the proceeding on 23 February 2022 for lack of payment of the required advances ⁷.

Enforcement and payment

No ICSID award in the cases listed ordered Kenya to pay damages ^{5,6 8}. The costs orders in Cortec and WalAm ran in Kenya's favour ^5,6. No source opened for this page says whether those costs have been paid to Kenya ^5,6.