Kenya Travel Requirements: Visas, Vaccinations and Entry

Kenya’s entry rules are administered by two bodies that do not talk to each other in a traveller’s inbox. The Directorate of Immigration Services runs the Electronic Travel Authorisation, and the Ministry of Health sets the vaccination certificate requirement at the border. Getting one right and the other wrong still means being turned away, which is why they belong on the same page.

Everything below is taken from the issuing authority and dated. Where an authority does not publish a position in readable form, that is said plainly rather than filled in from a secondary source. Rules change by legal notice, so the official portals govern on the day of travel, not this page. The rest of the planning sequence, including how a trip moves around Kenya and what a migration trip needs, sits with the other planning guides.

What the Electronic Travel Authorisation Is

Kenya no longer issues ordinary tourist visas on arrival. Entry runs on an Electronic Travel Authorisation, applied for online before departure and administered by the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, State Department for Immigration and Citizen Services, through the Directorate of Immigration Services.

The Directorate describes the eTA as a semi-automated system that determines a visitor’s eligibility to travel to Kenya. Its own wording on the point that matters most is worth reading carefully: an eTA offers permission to travel and is authorised by the Government of Kenya, but possession of an eTA is not the final authority to enter the Republic of Kenya, and admissibility is determined at the point of entry.

Applications are made only through the official portal at etakenya.go.ke or the official Kenya Travel Authorisation mobile application. Travellers already holding a valid Kenyan visa may continue to travel on it until it expires.

Every visitor needs their own eTA, including infants and children. There is no family or group authorisation; a group application simply submits several individual applications together.

Who Needs an eTA and Who Is Exempt

The starting position is that all visitors intending to travel to Kenya must hold an approved eTA before the start of the journey. Exemptions are set out in the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration (Amendment) Rules 2025 and published by the Directorate. The categories, as published and checked on 22 September 2026, are as follows.

Residence and permit holders. Holders of Kenyan Permanent Residence and of valid work permits and passes, and anyone whose passport carries a valid Kenyan re-entry pass or other written authority in lieu of one.

East African Community partner states, for stays not exceeding 180 days. Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Named countries, for stays not exceeding 90 days. Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cyprus, Dominica, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malaysia, Maldives, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Union of Comoros, Samoa, San Marino, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Bahamas, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, the Republic of Congo, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Named African countries, for stays not exceeding 60 days. Algeria, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sudan, Togo and Tunisia.

Transit and crew. Passengers in transit who arrive and leave by the same aircraft, or transfer to another aircraft, without leaving the precincts of a Kenyan airport. Passengers arriving and leaving on the same ship without leaving it. Crew listed on a manifest and continuing to a destination outside Kenya. Owners of private aircraft stopping over to refuel without leaving the airport.

Official travel. Holders of laissez-passer documents from a long list of international bodies while on that body’s official business, including the United Nations, the African Union, the African Development Bank, COMESA, IGAD, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, the International Labour Organization, the European Union and several regional organisations. Holders of diplomatic, official or service passports from certain named states have their own limits, and serving members of the British military are listed separately.

Two cautions. The Directorate’s published list repeats Gambia under two names, and the spelling of one Caribbean state is a slip, which is a reminder that the list is maintained by hand and amended by legal notice. The portal also carries a country by country eligibility lookup that this page cannot reproduce, because it loads dynamically. That lookup is the authoritative answer for any individual passport and should be the last check before travel.

eTA Categories and Official Fees

The Directorate publishes four eTA categories with fees in United States dollars. These are the fees on the official eligibility page, checked 22 September 2026.

Category	What it allows	Fee
Transit eTA	Travellers on a transit flight through Kenya	USD 20
Standard eTA	One entry into Kenya	USD 30
One Year Multi-Entry eTA	Multiple entries over one year	USD 300
Five Year Multi-Entry eTA	Multiple entries over five years, for American nationals	USD 185

An East African Tourist eTA is listed on the same page as coming soon, with no fee or terms yet published.

Expedited processing is an additional USD 100 on top of the category fee, and the Directorate’s own answer is that it is processed immediately. Diplomats are not required to pay for a standard eTA but may pay for the faster service.

These are government fees paid to the Directorate through the official portal. A number of commercial sites take eTA applications and add a service charge of their own; nothing they charge is an official fee, and the portal states that applications must be completed only through the official website or the official mobile application.

What the Application Asks For

The Directorate lists the following as required before an application is started.

• A valid passport with a minimum of six months validity and at least one blank page.
• A selfie or passport type photograph.
• Contact details, meaning an email address and a phone number.
• A travel itinerary covering arrival and departure.
• Accommodation booking confirmation.
• A payment method, such as a credit or debit card.

The accommodation requirement is the one that surprises people on a flexible trip, and it is worth resolving before starting the application rather than halfway through it. Additional documents are required depending on the purpose of travel: an invitation letter and company registration for business travel, an invitation letter and the host’s identification for a family visit, a referral letter for medical travel, a contract for employment, and an official letter alongside the passport for diplomatic travel. Vaccination or test certificates are listed among the additional documents that may be requested.

Processing Times and When to Apply

The Directorate states that eTA applications are usually processed in three days, and elsewhere as within three business days or 72 hours, with longer possible depending on verification. Its own recommendation is to apply at least two weeks before travel to allow adequate time for processing. The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office repeats the same two week recommendation in its Kenya entry requirements, updated 15 September 2026.

The sequence after submission is a receipt email, a payment confirmation email where a fee applies, and then an approval or refusal email once an immigration officer has decided. An approved authorisation arrives as a PDF, which has to be printed or saved to a device or to the official mobile application, and it is shown at departure as well as on arrival. Travel is permitted only after approval.

Passport Validity and Blank Pages

Kenya’s portal states a minimum of six months validity and at least one blank page. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office states that to enter Kenya a passport must have an expiry date at least six months after the date of arrival, and at least two blank pages.

The two sources agree on validity and differ on blank pages. Where official sources differ, the stricter reading is the safe one: six months validity and two blank pages. A passport with a single blank page is a problem worth solving at home rather than at a desk in Nairobi.

An Approved eTA Is Not Admission

This is the point the commercial application sites tend to leave out. An eTA authorises travel to Kenya. The decision on whether a particular traveller enters is made by an immigration officer at the point of entry, and the Directorate says so in its own general information. Refusal at the border is rare for ordinary tourism, but the eTA is not a guarantee and should not be described as one.

An eTA is also not a work permit and not a residence permit. Work and residency run on a separate process through the Directorate of Immigration Services, and doing paid work on a travel authorisation is an immigration offence.

Yellow Fever: the One Vaccination Certificate Kenya Checks

Kenya has one vaccination certificate requirement at the border and it concerns yellow fever. It is not universal, and understanding the distinction between a certificate requirement and a health recommendation saves a lot of confusion.

The Ministry of Health states that all travellers arriving in Kenya from countries where yellow fever is endemic should present a valid yellow fever certificate. The United Kingdom’s National Travel Health Network and Centre puts the same rule in its International Health Regulations form: under the International Health Regulations 2005, a yellow fever vaccination certificate is required from travellers over one year of age arriving from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission. The World Health Organization publishes the list of countries that carry that risk, and it is the list that decides whether the requirement applies.

The practical reading is that the requirement follows the route, not the destination. A traveller flying direct from a country with no yellow fever risk is generally not required to produce a certificate on arrival in Kenya. A traveller who has passed through a country on the risk list is, and transit can be enough to trigger it, which is why the itinerary matters as much as the passport.

Since 11 July 2016, and for all countries, a yellow fever certificate is valid for the life of the person vaccinated. A valid certificate cannot be rejected on the grounds that more than ten years have passed, and boosters cannot be required. An old certificate is still a valid certificate.

The Ministry of Health also publishes exemptions from yellow fever vaccination itself: infants under nine months, except during an epidemic when infants of six to nine months in high risk areas should also be vaccinated; pregnant women, except during an outbreak where the risk of infection is high; people with severe allergy to egg protein; and people with severe immunodeficiency owing to symptomatic HIV or AIDS or other causes, or a thymus disorder. Anyone in one of those categories needs a conversation with a travel health professional about a medical waiver well before departure, not a decision made at check-in.

Vaccination Recommended Rather Than Required

Separately from the certificate rule, there is a question of whether yellow fever vaccination is recommended for the journey itself, and here Kenya’s geography matters.

The National Travel Health Network and Centre records a risk of yellow fever transmission in parts of Kenya and a low potential for exposure in others. It recommends vaccination for travellers aged nine months and older, including those travelling to Tsavo East, Tsavo West, the Maasai Mara and Lake Nakuru. It records that vaccination is generally not recommended for travel only to the areas with low potential for exposure, which it lists as the entire North Eastern province, the counties of Kilifi, Kwale, Lamu, Malindi and Tana River in the Coastal province including Shimba Hills National Park, and the cities of Nairobi and Mombasa. It also notes that cases were reported in Garissa County in the first half of 2022, outside the recognised transmission area, following an outbreak in August 2022 centred on Isiolo County.

That is United Kingdom guidance for United Kingdom travellers, and other national travel health services reach their conclusions independently. The point to carry away is that a safari itinerary and a beach itinerary can attract different advice in the same country, and the advice depends on where the trip actually goes.

Beyond yellow fever, the vaccines the same service recommends for most travellers to Kenya are hepatitis A, tetanus and typhoid, with hepatitis B, rabies and others considered for some travellers depending on activity, length of stay and personal circumstances. None of these is checked at a Kenyan border. All of them are a matter for a travel health consultation, ideally four to six weeks before travel, and an appointment is still worth making when time is shorter than that.

Malaria Is a Health Risk, Not an Entry Requirement

No Kenyan authority asks a visitor for proof of malaria prophylaxis, and no certificate exists. It is nonetheless the health issue most likely to affect a safari traveller.

The National Travel Health Network and Centre records a high risk of malaria in Kenya, with atovaquone and proguanil, doxycycline or mefloquine recommended for the risk areas, and a very low risk in the city of Nairobi and in the highlands above 2,500 metres, where awareness of risk and bite avoidance are what it recommends instead. Which of those applies to a given trip depends on the itinerary, and which drug suits a given traveller is a clinical question rather than a travel one.

The framework the service uses is worth knowing because it makes sense of the advice: awareness of the risk, bite prevention, chemoprophylaxis where appropriate, and prompt diagnosis. Symptoms can appear between eight days and a year after an infected bite, so a fever of 38 degrees or higher more than a week after being in a risk area is a reason to seek medical attention and to say where the trip went.

COVID-19 Requirements

The Ministry of Health’s position for arriving travellers is that no proof of COVID-19 vaccination and no pre-departure test is required at any point of entry. Travellers arriving with flu-like symptoms are expected to complete a passenger locator form on the Jitenge platform and to take an antigen test on arrival at their own cost, with a further PCR test if the antigen test is positive.

Customs, Allowances and What Must Be Declared

Customs at Kenyan points of entry is administered by the Kenya Revenue Authority under the East African Community Customs Management Act 2004. Declarations are made on the prescribed Passenger Declaration Form, Form F88, and the terminals run a dual channel system: a green channel for passengers with nothing to declare and dutiable goods within the free allowance, a red channel for anyone carrying dutiable or restricted goods.

The Authority publishes a concession of USD 2,000 applying to goods for personal or household use, with used personal effects exempt on top of that. Alcohol, perfume and tobacco are excluded from the concession and carry their own limits: spirits or liquors not exceeding one litre, or wine not exceeding two litres; perfume and toilet water not exceeding half a litre in total, of which no more than a quarter may be perfume; and cigarettes, cigars, tobacco and snuff not exceeding 250 grammes in total weight.

Currency of USD 10,000 or more, or the equivalent in any currency, must be declared. So must purchases in accompanied baggage exceeding USD 500, items bought at duty free above the allowances, items brought for someone else including gifts, and anything intended for sale or business use. Giving false information to a customs officer is an offence, undeclared goods are liable to seizure, and officers are empowered to examine baggage.

All figures in this section are from the Kenya Revenue Authority’s published passenger clearance guidance, checked 22 September 2026.

Plastics, Drones and Wildlife Products

Three prohibitions catch visitors more often than customs allowances do, and two of them apply after arrival rather than at the border.

Plastic carrier bags. The National Environment Management Authority states plainly that it is illegal to use, import or manufacture plastic carrier bags in Kenya. The ban has been in force since 2017 and is enforced with fines and prosecutions. Packing cubes and reusable bags are the practical answer; a suitcase lined with plastic carriers is not.

Single use plastics in protected areas. A separate and stricter rule applies inside the parks. Under Gazette Notice No. 4858 of 5 June 2019, made under section 116(2)(d) of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act 2013, the Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife banned the use of plastic bottles, straws and related products within protected areas in national parks, national reserves, conservation areas and other designated wildlife protected areas, with effect from 4 June 2020. In practice that means a refillable bottle rather than a case of bottled water, and it is the reason camps hand out metal flasks.

Drones. Importing or exporting a drone without prior approval from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority is illegal, and the Civil Aviation (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) Regulations 2020 require registration of every drone operated in Kenya. Registration eligibility is limited to Kenyan citizens, foreign nationals lawfully admitted for residency, majority Kenyan owned companies and government entities. The getting around Kenya page covers what that means in practice.

Wildlife products. Ivory, rhino horn, sea turtle shell and other wildlife trophies are prohibited, and the prohibitions apply at both ends of a journey under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species as well as under Kenyan law. Curio stalls occasionally offer items that fall foul of them. Anything made from an animal is worth declining on principle.

Travel Insurance and the Things No Authority Checks

Kenya does not require proof of travel insurance to issue an eTA or to admit a visitor. That is not an argument for travelling without it.

The structural reason is evacuation. Safari regions are hours from a hospital by road and the serious response is an air evacuation, which is expensive and has to be arranged and paid for by somebody. Policies differ sharply on whether they cover evacuation from a remote area, and on whether they cover the activities a particular trip contains: balloon flights, diving, climbing above a stated altitude and riding are the usual exclusions. Reading the exclusions against the itinerary is a more useful exercise than comparing headline sums.

A Sensible Order to Do This In

The dependencies matter more than the dates. The eTA application asks for a travel itinerary and an accommodation confirmation, so it cannot be the first thing done. The vaccination consultation should not be the last.

• Check the passport first, for six months validity beyond the arrival date and two clear blank pages. Everything else depends on it and a renewal takes the longest.
• Arrange the travel health consultation four to six weeks before departure, earlier for anyone with a pre-existing condition or an itinerary reaching the yellow fever areas.
• Fix the itinerary and the accommodation, because the eTA application asks for both.
• Apply for the eTA at least two weeks before travel through the official portal, one application per traveller including children.
• Check the yellow fever position against the actual route, including any transit, rather than against the destination alone.
• Take the insurance out early enough that cancellation cover applies, and check it against the activities on the itinerary.
• Recheck the official portal shortly before departure. Requirements are amended by legal notice and the portal reflects the change before anything else does.

Questions About Kenya Travel Requirements

Does Kenya still issue visas on arrival?

No. Entry runs on an Electronic Travel Authorisation applied for online before departure, through etakenya.go.ke or the official mobile application. Travellers who already hold a valid Kenyan visa may continue to use it until it expires. Search results still repeat the older position that certain nationalities need a visa obtained in advance from an embassy, and that is out of date.

How much does a Kenya eTA cost?

The Directorate of Immigration Services publishes USD 30 for a standard single entry eTA, USD 20 for a transit eTA, USD 300 for a one year multi-entry eTA and USD 185 for a five year multi-entry eTA for American nationals, checked on 22 September 2026. Expedited processing is an additional USD 100. An East African Tourist eTA is listed as coming soon with no published fee.

How long does an eTA take to come through?

The Directorate states that applications are usually processed within three days, or three business days and 72 hours in its other wording, and that verification can take longer. It recommends applying at least two weeks before travel. An expedited option is processed immediately for an additional fee.

Is my country exempt from the eTA?

Possibly. East African Community citizens are exempt for stays up to 180 days, a named group of countries for up to 90 days and a named group of African countries for up to 60 days, under the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration (Amendment) Rules 2025. Those lists are set out in full above. Because the lists are amended by legal notice, the country eligibility lookup on the official portal is the authoritative check before travelling, and it should be used even if a country appears on the lists here.

Do I need a yellow fever vaccination certificate for Kenya?

Only if arriving from a country with risk of yellow fever transmission. The Ministry of Health requires a valid certificate from travellers arriving from countries where yellow fever is endemic, and under the International Health Regulations the requirement applies to travellers over one year of age. Transit through a risk country can be enough to trigger it. Whether vaccination is separately recommended for the itinerary is a different question, and for a trip taking in Tsavo, the Maasai Mara or Lake Nakuru the United Kingdom’s travel health service does recommend it.

My yellow fever certificate is more than ten years old. Is it still valid?

Yes. Since 11 July 2016 the certificate has been valid for the life of the person vaccinated, for all countries. A valid certificate cannot be rejected because more than ten years have passed, and a booster cannot be required.

What vaccinations are required for a Kenyan safari?

Required at the border: yellow fever, and only for arrivals from a risk country. Everything else is recommendation rather than requirement. For most travellers the United Kingdom’s travel health service recommends hepatitis A, tetanus and typhoid, with others considered depending on the trip. The recommendations differ between national travel health services, so the right source is the one in the traveller’s own country, at a consultation four to six weeks before departure.

Do I need malaria tablets for Kenya?

No authority checks for them and no certificate exists, but the risk is real. The United Kingdom’s travel health service records a high risk of malaria in Kenya with antimalarials recommended for the risk areas, and a very low risk in Nairobi city and the highlands above 2,500 metres where bite avoidance alone is recommended. Which applies depends on the itinerary and which drug suits a traveller is a clinical decision.

Are there still COVID-19 requirements for entering Kenya?

The Ministry of Health states that no proof of vaccination and no pre-departure test is required at any point of entry. Travellers arriving with flu-like symptoms complete a passenger locator form on the Jitenge platform and take an antigen test on arrival at their own cost.

How much cash can I bring into Kenya?

There is no limit on the amount, but currency of USD 10,000 or more, or the equivalent, must be declared to customs on arrival. Purchases in accompanied baggage exceeding USD 500 must also be declared, and the general concession for goods for personal or household use is USD 2,000, with used personal effects exempt on top of it. The figures are the Kenya Revenue Authority’s, checked on 22 September 2026.

Can I take plastic water bottles into a national park?

No. A gazette notice made under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act bans plastic bottles, straws and related products inside national parks, national reserves and conservation areas, with effect from 4 June 2020. Separately, plastic carrier bags are illegal to use, import or manufacture anywhere in Kenya. A refillable bottle solves both.

Is travel insurance compulsory for Kenya?

No authority requires proof of it. The reason to hold it anyway is that a medical emergency in a safari region is answered by air evacuation, which policies cover unevenly and which is expensive without cover. Activities including balloon flights, diving, climbing and riding are commonly excluded, so the exclusions matter more than the headline figure.