Dick Johnson writes:

But have you ever wondered where local currency got its name?

Ours is called pesa, from Peso the Spanish currency. Our lowest denomination is five cents, also called Ndururu. Or Oruro in street slang. Ndururu is Swahili for "light, small, thin, undersize or weak." The 10-cent coin, or peni, had a Sheng name, Ng'och, which gradually diminished in use as the value of the shilling nosed south over the years.

The earliest currency in Kenya, according to the CBK was the Maria Theresa Thalers which were silver coins used in world trade since they were first minted in 1751. They were named after Empress Maria Theresa of the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1740 and 1780.

The Maria Theresa Thalers found their way to shores of eastern Africa in the 1800s and were similar to the Spanish Peso hence the word pesa.

The coins hardly reached the interior despite their popularity at the coast. The Indian Rupees, however, managed to do so since it was used to pay the Asian labourers during the construction of the Uganda Railway.

To read the complete article, see:Kenya: No Coins Please, My Pockets Are More Precious(allafrica.com/stories/201107110172.html)