5 Rupees

The Government of the East Africa Protectorate issued this note during a period of acute monetary stress — the East Africa campaign against German forces had severely disrupted trade and the supply of coin, forcing a rapid expansion of emergency paper currency. Thomas De La Rue printed the series in London, though wartime shipping conditions meant that getting printed stock to Mombasa was neither routine nor guaranteed.

The Protectorate itself ceased to exist in 1920 when it became the Colony of Kenya, making this series among the final currency issues under that administrative designation. P#2 notes that actually circulated show characteristic equatorial humidity damage to the paper.