Nairobi, Sept. 10 -- Banks and Safaricom accounted for 80.2 percent of the total dividends distributed by companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) in the last full financial year, making them out as the best bet for investors looking for regular income from equities.

The 12 listed banks and the telecoms operator collectively paid Sh197.2 billion to shareholders for the latest financial year, part of the NSE's total dividends of Sh245.9 billion in the period.

The other 21 companies that paid out dividends for the year distributed a combined Sh48.7 billion, which is just over half of the Sh80 billion that was paid out by Safaricom alone.

East African Breweries Plc (EABL), BAT Kenya and KenGen had the largest payouts outs...