NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya Commercial Bank won shareholder approval on Friday to raise 5 billion shillings through a rights issue to fund its expansion plans.

The country's biggest retail bank plans to open an additional 30 branches in Kenya along with 50 new cashpoint machines. Across east Africa it plans 30 new branches and to instal a similar number of automated teller machines.

"The 5 billion is not just for regional expansion, it is also for internal expansion in Kenya," Chairwoman Susan Mudhune told Reuters on the sidelines of the bank's annual shareholders' meeting.

She said Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) was targeting Rwanda to complement its operations in Uganda, Tanzania and south Sudan.

KCB's pretax profit surged 62 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007.

Competition between Kenyan banks has intensified in recent years, leading a number of them to seek recapitalisation.

Barclays Bank of Kenya issued a seven-year corporate bond worth 1 billion shillings last year, while Co-operative Bank wants to raise 5 billion shillings through an initial public offering later this year.