Insights At a Glance:
- Private couriers delivered 17x more domestic parcels than Posta Kenya, handling over 2.76M vs Posta’s 161K between January and March 2025.
- Posta saw massive drops, including an 82% plunge in domestic letters and 75% drop in parcels over the same period.
- Outgoing international traffic surged—Posta’s outgoing parcels jumped 478%, suggesting more Kenyans are shipping abroad.
Kenya’s postal sector is going through a dramatic transformation—and the latest numbers from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) show just how wide the gap has grown between the struggling national postal operator and its faster, more agile private sector rivals.
According to the CA’s Q3 2024/25 Sector Statistics Report, private courier companies delivered a staggering 2.76 million domestic parcels between January and March 2025. In contrast, Posta Kenya, the designated national postal operator, managed just 161,331 parcels during the same period.
That means courier firms handled more than 17 times the volume of domestic parcels compared to Posta Kenya—a statistic that underscores a critical shift in how Kenyans send, receive, and trust deliveries.
Posta’s Sharp Decline Across the Board
Once the default option for anything stamped and sealed, Posta Kenya is now grappling with steep declines in nearly every category:
- Domestic letters fell by 82.1%, from 815,075 in Q2 to just 145,627 in Q3.
- Domestic parcels dropped by 74.8% to 161,331, down from 641,262 between October and December 2024.
- International incoming letters saw an alarming 95.3% decrease from 500,263 to just 23,435.
- Incoming parcels from abroad fell 66.6% from 324,671 in December 2024 to 108,416 in March 2025.
The only silver lining for Posta came from outgoing international traffic:
- Letters sent abroad rose by 119.5%, from 6,708 to 14,727.
- Parcels sent abroad exploded by 477.5%, up from 19,369 in December 2024 to 111,850 in March 2025.
It seems Kenyans are increasingly using Posta not to send items across town, but to ship abroad to destinations where private couriers may charge a premium or lack access.
Private Couriers Dominating, But Slowing Too
Despite the impressive gulf between them and Posta Kenya, even licensed private courier operators experienced a slowdown:
- Domestic parcel volumes fell by 25.5% (from 3.7M to 2.76M).
- Domestic letters dipped by 6.0% from 813,741 in December 2024, totaling 764,948 as of March 2025.
However, the private sector continues to outperform Posta significantly, not just in parcel volume but also in perceived reliability and reach. Companies like G4S, Fargo Courier, and Glovo have built user trust through real-time tracking, doorstep pickups, and faster turnaround times—features Posta has struggled to match.
Internationally, private couriers posted solid gains:
- Outgoing letters rose by 51.6% from 15,502 to 23,506.
- Outgoing parcels edged up by 7.5% from 22,927 to 24,638.
- Incoming letters grew by 12.7% from 35,088 to 39,540.
- Incoming parcels dropped by 5.9% from 206,369 to 194,148.
This suggests that Kenyan businesses and individuals are increasingly exporting, or at least mailing out to the rest of the world, even as local delivery demand takes a breather.
Courier vs. Posta Performance Comparison (Oct–Dec 2024 vs Jan–Mar 2025)
| Item Type | Posta Q2 (Oct–Dec) | Posta Q3 (Jan–Mar) | Change (%) | Courier Q2 (Oct–Dec) | Courier Q3 (Jan–Mar) | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic Letters | 815,075 | 145,627 | ▼ 82.1% | 813,741 | 764,948 | ▼ 6.0% |
| International Outgoing Letters | 6,708 | 14,727 | ▲ 119.5% | 15,502 | 23,506 | ▲ 51.6% |
| International Incoming Letters | 500,263 | 23,435 | ▼ 95.3% | 35,088 | 39,540 | ▲ 12.7% |
| Domestic Parcels | 641,262 | 161,331 | ▼ 74.8% | 3,706,664 | 2,762,007 | ▼ 25.5% |
| International Outgoing Parcels | 19,369 | 111,850 | ▲ 477.5% | 22,927 | 24,638 | ▲ 7.5% |
| International Incoming Parcels | 324,671 | 108,416 | ▼ 66.6% | 206,369 | 194,148 | ▼ 5.9% |
Why Is This Happening?
Posta’s steep decline is hardly surprising for those who’ve watched its slow evolution—or lack thereof.
While the world embraced same-day delivery, real-time tracking, e-commerce integration, and mobile payments, Posta held on to its legacy systems. Queues, paper slips, unreliable delivery schedules, and outdated infrastructure have chipped away at public trust.
In contrast, private couriers:
- Offer app-based ordering and SMS updates
- Serve customers on-demand or within 24 hours
- Partner with social commerce sellers, especially on platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp
- Have expanded aggressively into both urban and peri-urban markets
The shift is clear: Kenyans now prioritize speed, transparency, and customer service.
Broader Trends Across Kenya’s ICT Sector
This postal shake-up fits into a larger national story. The same CA report highlights how Kenya’s digital infrastructure is evolving fast:
- Mobile data subscriptions rose to 57.18 million
- 4G leads with 36.26 million users, while 5G climbed to 1.18 million
- 3G usage dropped, and 2G surprisingly grew, showing an uneven digital upgrade
- Cyber threats spiked by 201%, with 2.5 billion incidents detected
- Safaricom, Faiba, Poa Internet, and others continue to dominate the fixed broadband race, while Starlink dropped over 2,000 subscribers as of March 2025.
In other words, Kenya’s digital and delivery ecosystems are being redefined—by innovation, convenience, and user experience. Posta Kenya is falling behind, not because it’s irrelevant, but because it’s been too slow to catch up.
The CA’s latest figures confirm what most Kenyans already know: Posta isn’t the go-to it used to be. Private couriers now dominate the last-mile game, offering convenience and confidence that Posta Kenya hasn’t consistently delivered.
That said, with rising outbound traffic and a digital-first generation of users, the postal sector still has a chance to reinvent itself—if it’s willing to invest in tech, speed, and service. Because in Kenya’s fast-moving delivery economy, standing still is the fastest way to fall behind.
