There are a couple of 4G providers in Kenya notably Safaricom, Airtel, Faiba and Telkom. While there are some regional differences between the providers Safaricom has by far invested more than anyone in their 4G+ network.
From our extensive testing of 4g speeds in Diani we found that in most places we would get a reasonably fast connection. While field testing in more remote areas we saw speeds topping 200mbps down with low latency on Safaricom. We haven’t tested Airtel.
Dual sim
In general, most phones you can buy in Kenya are dual-sim and have better battery life than your average iPhone etc. For around $100 you can pick up a reasonable smartphone that’s good for most uses.
If having coverage all the time is essential to you I’d recommend having your home SIM if includes roaming plus one of the two options below.
Safaricom
It’s relatively easy to pick up a sim card. You just need to head to a phone shop with your passport and you’ll get a SIM. There are two main types of bundles that are relevant to nomads with and without expiry.
Unfortunately, nothing is unlimited but the speed probably makes up for that.
Bundles with expiry
There are three intervals here 1, 7 and 30 days with the lattermost providing the best value. You can buy and activate them on top of each other and Safaricom appear to do a reasonable job of making sure you get what you paid for.
Daily
- 150MB + WhatsApp = 50 Ksh
- 500MB + WhatsApp = 99 Ksh
7 day expiry
- 100MB = 50 Ksh
- 350MB + WhatsApp = 99 Ksh
- 1GB + WhatsApp = 250 Ksh
- 3GB + WhatsApp = 500 Ksh
30-day expiry
- 350MB = 250ksh
- 2GB + WhatsApp = 500 Ksh
- 5GB + WhatsApp = 1000 Ksh
- 15GB + WhatsApp = 2000 Ksh
- 25GB + WhatsApp = 3000 Ksh
Note: At the time of writing Safaricom were running a promotion where you got double data for the above plans. Best way to check current pricing is just to tether your phone to your computer and head to: safaricom.com/bundles/
Bundles without expiry
As long as you’re spending over 51ksh you’ll be paying 0.20 Ksh per MB. That means that you would pay 5,000 Ksh for the equivalent bundle with expiry but the plus side is that it doesn’t expire and you can set up an auto top-up.
We’ve not found this bundle particularly useful for anything other than IoT devices but if you’re travelling in and out of the country regularly it might be handy.
Airtel
We haven’t extensively tested Airtel but we will when we next go out testing. They have a reasonable selection of bundles which are very similar to Safaricom albeit usually better value overall.
Daily
- 600MB + WhatsApp = 50 Ksh
- 2GB + WhatsApp = 99 Ksh
7-day expiry
- 350MB + WhatsApp = 50 Ksh
- 750MB + WhatsApp = 100 Ksh
- 3GB + WhatsApp = 250 Ksh
- 6.5GB + WhatsApp = 500 Ksh
30-day expiry
- 3GB + WhatsApp = 300 Ksh
- 5GB + WhatsApp = 500 Ksh
- 12GB + WhatsApp = 1000 Ksh
- 20GB + WhatsApp = 1500 Ksh
- 30GB + WhatsApp = 2000 Ksh
- 50GB + WhatsApp = 3000 Ksh
90-day expiry
- 25GB + WhatsApp = 3000 Ksh
- 55GB + WhatsApp = 6000 Ksh
- 90GB + WhatsApp = 9000 Ksh