The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between strategic employee recruitment practices and employee retention in commercial banks in Kenya. A survey design was used to gather the information needed to achieve the objectives. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were used. The study was carried out in commercial banks in Kenya which had operating Licenses from the Central bank of Kenya. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics mainly percentages and frequency distribution. Correlation and regression analysis were used to test the relationship between the variables. The study established that the organizations practiced strategic recruitment such as the use of associations, psychometric tests, websites, targeting specific professionals, employing head hunting strategies, offer incentives, ranking of potential candidates and utilization of internet and other technologies which influenced the employee recruitment. The study concluded that the strategic employee recruitment influenced the employee retention. The study recommended that the management of all commercial banks should embrace strategic recruitment with the view of retaining their talents and thereby cutting the cost of recruitment and the loss of talents which are valuable to the organizations’ competitiveness.