The author's previous work on the Rayleigh–Taylor instability is extended to the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, and the maximum growth rate of a perturbation and an estimate of its upper bound is obtained for an infinite fluid layer under horizontal rotation where the density, horizontal velocity (shear) and magnetic field are continuously stratified in the direction of gravity. Conclusions are drawn about the possibility of stability for some directions of propagation of the perturbation, even in the case of unstably stratified density. It is also shown that the new terms that appear owing to the interaction of the horizontal shear flow, horizontal rotation and stratified magnetic field increase the range of values that contribute to the estimate of the maximum growth rate compared with previous work. Furthermore, a generalization of the sufficient condition for stability under horizontal rotation alone obtained by Johnson is calculated in the presence of density stratification. A new method is also given to obtain a sufficient condition for stability when a magnetic field is present in addition to rotation and density stratification.