Not firms you deal with, but the infrastructure everything else runs on: the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the NSE Derivatives Exchange, the Central Depository and Settlement Corporation, EABX, and the agencies licensed to rate credit.

Every share trade in Kenya is matched at the exchange and settled at the depository. Your ownership of a share is a record at the CDSC, which is why it survives your broker.

You use these without ever signing anything with them. The one exception is worth knowing: the Nairobi Securities Exchange is itself a listed company, so its shares can be bought like any other.

No return as an institution. NSE Plc, as a listed share, has a price and a dividend history like every other counter — and Ipahco carries both.

These institutions do cost you something, though it never arrives as a bill: the NSE, CMA, CDSC and investor compensation levies are the 0.29% inside every trade's dealing cost. That is what you pay for the market existing and for your ownership being recorded somewhere your broker cannot reach.