10 Rupees

The Government of the East Africa Protectorate — the administrative precursor to the Colony of Kenya — issued this series as the region's first unified paper currency, replacing a patchwork of Indian rupee notes and private bank instruments that had circulated informally among merchants and colonial administrators. The rupee itself was the natural unit of account given the heavy commercial presence of Indian traders along the coast and inland along the Uganda Railway corridor.

Thomas De La Rue handled the entire print run in London, which meant notes had to travel the full distance to Mombasa before entering use — a logistical wrinkle that became genuinely problematic during the First World War, when German East Africa operations disrupted regional supply and communication networks.