How we calculate

Where the data comes from

We read each fund manager's public factsheets and daily price pages. The fund list comes from the Capital Markets Authority register of collective investment schemes. Benchmark rates come from the Central Bank of Kenya.

We keep a copy of every document we read. Next to each number you will find a link to the original and to our archived copy, with the date the figure applies to.

A few managers show their yields without a date. For those we use the date we read the page, and we watch for figures that stop changing.

How figures are checked

A value is published automatically only if it passes our checks: it must be present, within a sensible range, dated no later than today, and a yield must not move by 1.5 percentage points or more from the previous day.

Anything that fails a check goes to a person for review. So does the first reading from every new source, and every value extracted with the help of AI. Reviewers can approve, correct or reject a value; corrections are recorded.

Net yield

Fund managers advertise an effective annual yield. For most Kenyan money market funds this figure is already after the management fee but before withholding tax.

Net yield is what you keep: if the advertised yield is before fees we first subtract the management fee and other annual charges, then we deduct withholding tax (currently 15% on interest for Kenyan residents).

Example: an advertised 10.40% that is already net of fees becomes 10.40% × (1 − 0.15) = 8.84%.

What KES 100,000 earns

We multiply KES 100,000 by the net yield and round to the nearest shilling. This is an illustration based on the latest yield; real earnings change as yields change and depend on when you invest and withdraw.

What we compare funds with

Shilling money market funds are compared with the 91-day Treasury bill. It is what these funds mostly hold, many managers name it as their own benchmark, and anyone can buy it directly from the Central Bank of Kenya through DhowCSD. We use the weighted average rate of accepted bids from the latest weekly auction, as published in the Central Bank's auction results.

US dollar money market funds are compared with the US 3-month Treasury bill (the 13-week "coupon equivalent" rate the US Treasury publishes each business day), the closest dollar equivalent.

We deduct the same 15% withholding tax from the benchmark as from the fund, so both figures are what you would keep. The difference is shown in percentage points (pp).

Other kinds of fund (bond, equity, balanced and special funds) do not have a benchmark on this site yet. We will add suitable ones, such as government bond yields or the NSE All Share Index, once those funds have live data.

Reading the comparison fairly

The T-bill rate is what new bills paid at the latest auction. A fund's yield reflects what it bought over recent weeks and months. When rates are falling, funds tend to look better than the T-bill for a while; when rates are rising, the opposite.

They are not the same product. Buying a T-bill directly needs at least KES 50,000 (for a non-competitive bid), and your money is tied up until the bill matures in 91 days, unless you sell it early in the secondary market. A money market fund usually lets you start with much less and withdraw within a few days.

So a fund yielding a little less than the T-bill is not necessarily a worse choice for you; it depends on how much you are investing and how quickly you might need your money. We show the facts and leave that judgement to you.

Position among similar funds

We place each fund among funds of the same type and currency that published a yield in the last seven days, ordered by net yield. Funds with equal net yields share a position. A position is a fact about yield on one date, not a judgement of quality, and we never label any fund as best.

Consistency

Over the last 90 days we show the lowest and highest advertised yield and the day-to-day variation (standard deviation). A smaller variation means the yield has been steadier.

Out-of-date data

Fund managers publish at different rhythms: some update a web page every day, Jubilee publishes a weekly report, and others publish a monthly factsheet. We treat a figure as current until it is older than the source's normal cycle: 7 days for daily pages, 14 days for weekly reports and 45 days for monthly factsheets.

Out-of-date figures are marked clearly and left out of positions among similar funds and the default league table view.

Monthly figures are usually an average for the month, while daily pages show the latest day. Both are shown as an effective annual yield, but keep in mind they cover slightly different periods.

How we use AI

We use AI in three narrow ways: to read documents our normal parser cannot, to group holdings into asset classes, and to write the short plain-English summary on fund pages.

AI never decides what is published. Every number AI reads from a document goes to a person for review first. Summaries are written only from figures already in our database; an automatic check rejects any summary that contains a number not in our data or any advice-like wording, and the previous checked summary stays in place.

AI never recommends a fund or tells anyone to buy, sell or switch. AI-assisted text is labelled. Every AI call is logged with the instructions version and model used.

Facts, not advice

We are not a licensed investment adviser. Nothing on this site is a recommendation. Past yields do not predict future yields. Read a fund's own documents before investing.

Corrections

If you spot an error, tell us. We correct published figures, keep a record of the change, and recalculate every affected number.