Offices of Foreign Companies Under Kenya Company Law

Representative Offices of foreign companies
A representative office is registered as a foreign company under Section 365 of the Companies Act. A certified true copy of the constitution of the company or a translation of the same (notarized if not from a commonwealth country), names of directors and their addresses are required for registration of the office.There is also required the name and address of the person in Kenya who will accept service on behalf of the company. There is requirement for a form to be signed and filledin with the above details. There is no requirement for stamp duty, but filing and registration fees are payable.After all these formalities are fulfilled, then one obtains a Certificate of Compliance with Sections 365 and 366 of the Companies Act. It takes three weeks or so to obtain such certificate. The representative office requires a trade license, an immigration certificate, but no other licenses other than these.Representative offices can be used for non-profit purposes, as they are not liable to pay local taxes where there is no income generated by them as all contracts entered into by them may be deemed to be contracts of the parent company.