Nairobi, April 1 -- The share of the government's domestic debt stock held by retail investors has nearly doubled to 12.42 percent from 6.96 percent in March last year, reducing that by banks, insurance companies, and pension funds.

Data by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that individual investors have now overtaken insurance companies in the share of the government's domestic debt held, making them the third largest buyers of government papers after banks and pension funds.

In March last year, retail investors held only Sh316 billion of the total Sh4.5 trillion domestic debt stock, but this has now more than doubled to Sh650 billion, which is 12.42 per cent of the total Sh5.2 billion local State borrowing currently.

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