Kenya has stepped up efforts to tackle business cartels, abuse of market dominance and other anti-competitive practices that threaten to undermine the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The push comes as the focus shifts from negotiating the AfCFTA framework to implementing the trade deal, with competition policy emerging as a critical pillar in ensuring that liberalised markets benefit businesses and consumers rather than a few dominant players.
Speaking at an AfCFTA competition policy sensitisation workshop hosted by the Competition Authority of Kenya, Trade PS Regina Ombam said fair competition will create opportunities for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which are the majority in Africa
“The issues of cartelism come particularly when a party to that contract has more information than the other. When we are able to open up the market by ensuring competition is fair and information is available to everybody, it dissipates that dominance and allows other players to come in,” Ombam said.
She said greater access to market information would help SMEs understand opportunities across Africa, enabling them to produce goods that meet demand while reducing their vulnerability to dominant players.
The AfCFTA market, which brings together about 1.3 billion people, offers Kenyan enterprises an opportunity to diversify beyond traditional markets in East Africa.
According to the Economic Survey 2026, the value of Kenya’s exports to Africa rose 6.4 per cent to Sh452.8 billion in 2025, from Sh425.6 billion in 2024.
However, businesses continue to face tariff and non-tariff barriers, inadequate transport infrastructure and border challenges that have slowed the benefits of continental integration.
Competition authorities are also concerned that removing government-imposed trade barriers will have limited impact if private restrictions emerge through cartels and dominant businesses.
The AfCFTA Protocol on Competition Policy, adopted in February 2023, seeks to prevent practices such as price fixing, market allocation, bid-rigging, production quotas, abuse of dominance and anti-competitive mergers from undermining continental trade.
Malick Diallo, head of competition division at the AfCFTA Secretariat, warned that tariff liberalisation could be undermined if private cartels and dominant firms effectively recreated barriers to market entry.
The solution, officials said, lies in stronger coordination between national, regional and continental competition authorities, greater market transparency and effective enforcement of competition laws.
The protocol is designed to complement existing national and regional competition regimes rather than replace them, allowing authorities to cooperate where anti-competitive conduct crosses borders.
Competition Authority of Kenya director general, David Kemei, said Kenya’s proposed Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2026 would further strengthen oversight, including in rapidly evolving digital markets.
He said ratification of the AfCFTA Competition Protocol would deepen Kenya’s competition framework and strengthen its role in shaping continental competition policy.
With the AfCFTA push, Kenya has identified agriculture, livestock and fisheries, manufacturing, handicrafts, mining, oil and gas among priority merchandise sectors, while services opportunities include tourism, ICT, financial services, education, health and logistics.
The government is also pursuing trade digitisation and initiatives such as the Guided Trade Initiative to make cross-border transactions easier.
AfCFTA officials estimate that deeper integration could significantly increase intra-African trade by about 45 in the medium-term, lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty and another 68 million out of moderate poverty.
The next step for Kenya is ratification of the competition protocol which will require Parliamentary consideration before accession and submission to the African Union.
With stronger enforcement, transparent markets and better information for SMEs, Kenya hopes the AfCFTA will translate from a continental trade agreement into a practical platform for expanding exports, investment, jobs and industrialisation.
