@benzi the issue was actually oversubscribed due to excess liquidity in the financial sector.The CBK needed 7B but recieved bids totalling 27B that definetly speaks a lot about the financial environment.
I believe fund managers do trades for those odd lots but they usually accumulate clients oreders then sell them as a bulk

Total turnover in the Bond market yesterday was 6.12 B on 68 deals. A mean of ~89MM per deal which should give you an idea of just how tiny 50,000 BOB is (pooling or no)

Here's my GRD 0.02 ...

If part of the reason you want to diversify is to speculate on interest rates (and you're a bit late to the party) or to "hedge" equities, then consider investing in a professionally managed bond fund instead. The underlying pool of securities is bonds but you probably have little choice over which ones.

E.g Old Mutual Bond Fund
Dyer & Blair Bond Fund
Stanbic AM (?)


You can get in for much less (was ~ 200K for Old Mutual) and they're highly liquid as you can redeem your investment at the prevailing/closing unit price. It works similar to a unit trust.

E.g.
Yesterday's unit prices for Old Mutual Bond Fund
Buying - 114.14 / Selling - 116.47

If, however, your aim is fixed income, consider a fixed deposit account instead. I've noticed that postbank is still advertising 8.5% p.a on 100,000 fixed. GoK yield for 364 day T-Bill is ~ 5%....and postbank is implicitly fully backed by faith and credit of GoK so I might be so bold as to claim PostBank fixed deposit is "almost risk free"

*Disclosure : I'm not affiliated to any of the companies mentioned.
PostBank rates on fixed deposit may have changed.

Links:
http://www.oldmutualkeny...s_detail.php?news_id=24
http://www.dyerandblair....hp?dyer_blair=Bond-Fund
http://www.postbank.co.k...ches/fixed_deposit.html

http://www.nse.co.ke/new...0Prices%2023-Jun-10.xls

other than the interest rates_which are ok by the way_ what or how else does one make money from bonds.