_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Corresponding author: E-mail: johnmaara75@yahoo.com; Journal of Economics, Management and Trade 25(3): 1-20, 2019; Article no.JEMT.51784 ISSN: 2456-9216 (Past name: British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade, Past ISSN: 2278-098X) Why Do Migrants Remit? Empirical Evidence from Kenya John N. Maara 1* , Damiano K. Manda 2 and Joy Kiiru 2 1 University of Nairobi, Kenya. 2 University of Nairobi School of Economics, Kenya. Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration among all authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Article Information DOI: 10.9734/JEMT/2019/v25i330198 Editor(s): (1) Dr. Polona Tominc, Professor, Department of Quantitative Economic Analysis, University of Maribor, Slovenia. Reviewers: (1) Atilla Akbaba, İzmir Katip Celebi University, Turkey. (2) M. V. Chandramathi, India. (3) Ahmad R. Albattat, Management and Science University, Malaysia. Complete Peer review History: http://www.sdiarticle4.com/review-history/51784 Received 01 August 2019 Accepted 03 October 2019 Published 12 November 2019 ABSTRACT Aims: Remittances both external and internal are very important to the Kenyan economy. In view of this, this study improves the understanding of the drivers of remittances in Kenya. In addition, the study empirically tests the main theories of remittances namely altruism, self interest and implicit contractual agreement. Methodology: This paper analyzes migrant’s remittance behaviour in Kenya using household survey data from World Bank 2009 African Migration Project. Since a large share of migrants does not remit, Heckman sample selection model is suggested and estimated using Limited Information Maximum Likelihood method. Results: The results show that external migrants have a higher probability to remit and, on average send higher levels of remittances back home relative to internal migrants. Internal and external migrants with higher levels of education prior to migration and employed migrants remit more both at extensive and intensive margins. External migrants have a higher probability to remit and send larger amounts of money to higher-income households while internal migrants have a higher probability to remit and send higher levels to lower-income households. Conclusion: Therefore, the empirical results suggest that internal and external remittances are Original Research Article