Kenya’s Postal Service Is Dying, but Couriers and E-Commerce Are Picking up the Slack

The Postal Corporation of Kenya, the country’s designated public postal operator, saw domestic letter volumes crash 70.2% over the year, from 1.94 million to just 577,694.

International incoming letters fell even harder, down 90.5% to 92,680, while international outgoing letters bucked the trend and actually grew 45.7% to 68,696, one of the few bright spots in the corporation’s traditional letter business.

Parcels tell a more interesting story. Domestic parcel volumes at the Postal Corporation spiked 549.2% in a single quarter, from 102,890 to 667,978.

The report credits this to the lifting of a previous embargo on Express Mail Service items and a new partnership between the Postal Corporation and a last-mile delivery consolidation company tied to e-commerce growth.

Letter Category	Previous Year	Current Year	Change
Domestic Letters	1.94 million	577,694	↓ 70.2%
International Incoming Letters	—	92,680	↓ 90.5%
International Outgoing Letters	—	68,696	↑ 45.7%

Even so, parcels were still down 33.2% for the full year, from 1.49 million to 993,090, showing the quarterly spike was a partial recovery rather than a full reversal of the corporation’s long decline.

International parcel volumes for the Postal Corporation fell even further, with incoming international parcels down 85.4% over the year to just 138,651.

Private courier companies are faring better. Revenue in the courier market rose 6.7% for 2025, from KES 6.28 billion to KES 6.70 billion.

The split shifted notably: revenue from national courier operators jumped 67.5% to KES 2.01 billion, while international courier revenue actually fell 7.7% to KES 4.69 billion.

That means domestic courier business is growing much faster than the cross-border business that once dominated the industry.

Volume figures back this up. Domestic letters handled by private couriers rose 43.3% in the quarter to 912,480, suggesting private operators are absorbing demand that used to go through the public post office.

Category	Comparison Period	Volume	Change
Domestic Letters	Quarterly	912,480	↑ 43.3%
Domestic Parcels	Quarterly	3.37 million	Slightly down vs. previous quarter
Domestic Parcels	Annual	14.4 million	↑ 9.3%
International Incoming Parcels	Quarterly	244,545	↑ 28.6%
International Incoming Parcels	Annual	—	↓ 38%

Domestic parcels handled by private couriers reached 3.37 million in the quarter, down slightly from the previous quarter but still up 9.3% for the full year to 14.4 million, by far the largest volume category in the entire postal and courier sector.

International incoming parcels handled by private couriers also grew 28.6% in the quarter to 244,545, even though they were still down 38% for the full year compared to the previous financial year, when the sector cleared out a much larger backlog.