(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Kenya carried out the fifth largest sovereign bond buyback programme among low and middle income countries in 2025, as the government moved to manage upcoming debt maturities.
World Bank disclosures show Kenya spent $1.21 billion (KES 157.3 billion) on external bond buybacks last year. This placed the country behind Mexico at $17.62 billion (KES 2.29 trillion), Colombia at $6.61 billion (KES 859 billion), Argentina at $2.81 billion (KES 365 billion) and the Dominican Republic at $1.82 billion (KES 236.5 billion).
In a bond buyback, a government repurchases its own outstanding bonds from willing investors before they mature. This is done to smooth a country’s debt maturity profile and ease short term repayment pressure.
Kenya has carried out Eurobond buybacks regularly since February 2024. The aim is to lengthen the profile of debt contracted between 2014 and 2021 and create headroom against heavy maturities due before 2030.
Besides Kenya, other African economies that made significant Eurobond buyback undertakings in 2025 were Côte d’Ivoire, which bought back $759 million (KES 98.6 billion) in bonds, and Gabon, which bought back $225 million (KES 29.2 billion).
“In 2025, Kenya issued new bonds worth $3.5 billion (KES 454.9 billion) that were used to execute two debt buyback operations, the largest from an International Development Association eligible country,” the World Bank said.
“The proceeds were used to smooth the maturity profile of existing liabilities by re-financing near term liabilities with longer dated debt, including the $900 million (KES 117 billion) Eurobond maturing in 2027 and the $1 billion (KES 129.9 billion) Eurobond maturing in 2028.”
Kenya executed the buyback of the $1 billion bond due in 2028 in October 2025. The sale attracted $628.44 million (KES 81.7 billion) in bids. Earlier, in February 2025, the government bought back $580 million (KES 75.4 billion) of notes from the $900 million Eurobond due in 2027.
The country’s first ever Eurobond buyback was done in February 2024. It targeted $1.5 billion (KES 195 billion) from the $2 billion (KES 260 billion) debut bond issued in 2014, which had a bullet maturity in June 2024.
This exercise was meant to calm markets that had become doubtful of the government’s ability to retire the debt amid a dollar shortage at the time.
The fourth and latest Eurobond buyback was undertaken in February 2026. The government bought back $324.84 million (KES 42 billion) from a $1.2 billion Eurobond falling due in 2032. At the same time, it repurchased $90.51 million (KES 11.8 billion) from a $1 billion paper due in 2028.
The World Bank observed that Eurobond buyback programmes gained momentum in 2025. This came as economies facing heavy near term maturities sought to pre-empt market access challenges seen between 2022 and 2024, when many were shut out of global markets.
“The first and most significant element of debt reorganisation in 2025 was large scale sovereign bond buyback and exchange operations initiated by governments and financed by new sovereign bond issuances,” the World Bank said.
In 2025, Kenya’s government also undertook two domestic bond buyback programmes. The debut transaction in February retired KES 50.1 billion ($385,384) in debt across three and five year bonds and an infrastructure bond.
The proactive refinancing of public debt through tools such as buybacks, switch bonds and debt swaps has taken root. This comes as the government faces mounting debt service costs amid widening budget deficits and slow revenue growth.
In the year ended June 2026, spending on debt repayments was projected at KES 1.9 trillion ($14.6 billion), nearly 40% of the KES 4.82 trillion ($37.1 billion) budget for the year.