Former Safaricom chief executive Michael Joseph has joined the board of De La Rue Kenya EPZ Limited amid ownership changes, signalling a return to operations for the banknote printer more than two years after it suspended operations.
The appointment comes alongside sweeping ownership changes that have seen Switzerland-based Thomas De La Rue AG transfer its entire 60 percent stake in the Kenyan subsidiary to Mauritius-registered investment firm Monarch Capital Limited, according to filings at the Registrar of Companies.
Thomas De La Rue AG is a wholly owned subsidiary of London-listed De La Rue plc, which has operated in Kenya for nearly six decades and dominated the printing of Kenyan banknotes until it lost the multi-billion shilling deal to Germany’s Giesecke+Devrient.
The latest changes mark the biggest restructuring at the Ruaraka-based security printer since freezing note printing operations in January 2023, pointing to the possibility of the company resuming business by targeting new security printing opportunities beyond currency.
In 2023, De La Rue said it did not expect any new orders from Kenya’s central bank for the next 12 months due to low market demand, suspending its note printing operations in Nairobi.
The note printer said its joint venture with the Kenyan government, through which its operations in Kenya are conducted, will remain active.
When we reached out to him with questions on what his new role on the board of De La Rue will be, Mr Joseph promised to call back but had not done so by the time of going to press.
Mr Joseph is among three new directors appointed to the board alongside Andrew Pkemoi Lopokoiyot, an executive director at Wilson Airport-based aviation company Wilken Group, and Ugandan businessman Humphrey Arnold Munyamerere Nzeyi, founder of Invicta Africa Limited.
Mr Nzeyi’s company has, since September 2015, provided technical services to Uganda’s Ministry of Internal Affairs in the production of passports on behalf of De La Rue.
The company has also tapped a new secretary, a Kenyan advocate known as Isaac Mukui Nduru, who is also a director of Galana Energies, one of the major beneficiaries of the government-to-government fuel import scheme.
Despite relinquishing its shareholding, its chief financial officer, an Australian national, Michael James Aumann, remains a director of the Kenyan subsidiary.
The Kenyan government, through the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, retains its 40 percent stake in De La Rue Kenya EPZ Limited.
Mr Joseph is one of Kenya’s most respected corporate executives, having helped transform Safaricom from a little-known mobile telephony unit within Telkom Kenya into East Africa’s most profitable company and one of the most valuable firms on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).
After retiring as chief executive in 2010, the British-born executive remained on Safaricom’s board, later serving as chairman between 2020 and 2022, while simultaneously chairing the board of Kenya Airways from 2016 until 2025.
De La Rue’s fortunes changed after it lost the Central Bank of Kenya’s banknote printing contract, ending a decades-long dominance in the production of Kenyan currency.
In April 2024, the CBK awarded Germany’s Giesecke+Devrient a five-year contract worth Sh14.10 billion ($109.4 million) to print Kenya’s banknotes through a classified procurement process.
The banking regulator said the German company was selected through a restricted tender because delays in replacing the country’s banknote supplier risked a shortage of currency in circulation, with potentially serious economic and security consequences.
However, the classified procurement process later attracted scrutiny from the Auditor-General, who questioned the secrecy surrounding the award of the contract.
The loss of the tender forced De La Rue to suspend banknote production in Kenya in January 2023 and send home most of its workforce after bringing its Nairobi operations to a halt.
According to De La Rue’s latest annual report, the group booked £13.8 million (Sh2.39 billion) in restructuring costs linked to the closure of its Kenyan currency printing operations, largely covering redundancy payments and other costs associated with winding down the business.
The annual report further shows that the Kenyan subsidiary generated no revenue during the financial year, posting a small operating loss while retaining net assets valued at about £9 million (Sh1.55 billion).
Despite losing the currency printing business, industry players believe De La Rue could still rebuild its order book by pursuing other government security printing contracts.
Among the potential opportunities are the printing of national examinations administered by the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec), including the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KEPSEA), should the company win future tenders.
Other potential deals are printing excise stamps for the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), tamper-proof security labels and standards verification marks for the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs), as well as other government-issued secure documents.
The company has previously undertaken passport production in Kenya and continues to support passport manufacturing in neighbouring Uganda through technical partnerships.
De La Rue traces its Kenyan roots to 1966 through its predecessor companies Thomas De La Rue and Company Limited and Bradbury and Wilkinson, the latter having been acquired by Thomas De La Rue in 1986.
The company established its Ruaraka printing plant in October 1992, becoming the country’s principal producer of banknotes.
For more than three decades, successive generations of Kenyan currency were printed at the Nairobi facility, including the 2019 series of banknotes introduced following the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution.
The Treasury acquired a 40 percent stake in De La Rue Kenya EPZ Limited in 2017, turning the company into a joint venture with the British security printer.
The company also played a central role in the replacement of the old Sh1,000 note under former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration, a move that sought to flush out illicit cash held outside the banking system.
That long-standing relationship ended when the Kenya Kwanza administration opted for a new supplier, ending De La Rue’s decades-long monopoly in printing Kenyan currency.
A search of records at the Business Registration Service on May 25, 2026 showed De La Rue Kenya EPZ Limited was jointly owned by Thomas De La Rue AG, with a 60 percent stake, and the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, who held the remaining 40 percent on behalf of the Kenyan government.
However, a fresh search of the company’s CR-12 records conducted on July 28 showed significant changes in both ownership and the composition of the board.
The filings indicate that Thomas De La Rue AG transferred its entire shareholding to Monarch Capital, a Mauritius-registered investment company incorporated on October 6, 2025.