As of December 2019:
Entry into Kenya
- Namanga One Stop Border post: The easiest, cleanest and most friendly border crossing we have made to date.
- Road Tax: USD20 for a month. If you wish to stay longer you have to renew this at the KRA head office in Nairobi. If you will be in Kenya less than 14 days this fee can be avoided.
- Temporary Import permit (TIP): Kenya requires a Carnet du Passage.
- Insurance: When we discovered in Nairobi that our COMESA insurance purchased in Tanzania was in fact in-valid we purchased 1 months 3rd party insurance for KSH 2000 (USD20).
COMESA Insurance
- Despite our best efforts it was not possible to obtain COMESA coverage in Nairobi. The main stumbling block is we had the road tax paid for 1 month but wanted to purchase Kenyan insurance with COMESA added on for 4 months to cover all the upcoming countries. The insurance company would not provide cover without the road tax covering the some period and to do this did not make economical sense.
VISA and Length of Stay
No visa required for South Africans and a period of 90 days can be automatically obtained at the border. Another nationalities may require a visa and if this applies you should get an East Africa tourist visa which costs USD100 but gets you access to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
Cellphones and data coverage
- We used Telkom as we had swopped SIM cards with other travellers in Malawi. It would seem though that Safaricom offer better coverage through Kenya.
- Many campsites in Kenya offer WiFi which is generally fast and uncapped so less of your own data is required.