Data for Nairobi, the Masai Mara and the coast, installed before you fly. Kenya is on the Africa plan with Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda, so a safari that crosses into the Serengeti stays on one eSIM. On a game drive the signal comes and goes, which is rather the point.
The Kenya plan covers Kenya only.
The same 5 GB in a package that keeps working past Kenya.
32 other countries share the package with Kenya. A few of them:
What's included, when it starts, and how to get connected.
Kenya swapped visas for an Electronic Travel Authorisation in 2024, and most visitors from outside Africa need one: apply on etakenya.go.ke, from US$30, at least two weeks before you fly, since processing can take three working days. A mandatory visitor health-insurance rule published in July 2026 was suspended by the High Court in August; check the eTA site for where it stands.
Nairobi National Park, Kenya’s first, dates from 1946 and begins about 10 km from the city centre: three lion prides, a black-rhino sanctuary and giraffes that pose in front of the skyline. Wild elephants are the missing member of the Big Five, but the Sheldrick Trust raises orphaned ones at its nursery inside the park, open to visitors for an hour a day. Entry is US$80 for non-residents.
Kenya banned plastic carrier bags in 2017, with penalties of up to four years in jail or a fine of around US$40,000, among the toughest anywhere. Duty-free bags have to be left at the point of entry, so pack purchases in your hand luggage. Since 2020, disposable plates, cups, cutlery, straws and water bottles are banned in national parks, forests and on beaches.
At the height of the migration, the Mara Triangle, the reserve’s western sector, has counted well over 1,000 people a day at a single set of toilets, with queues of up to 70 vehicles. Its rules cap viewing at ten minutes when more than five vehicles are waiting at a sighting. The wildebeest cross when they please; the crowds cross in August.
It is everyday Swahili for ‘no problem’, and the Kenyan band Them Mushrooms put it in ‘Jambo Bwana’ in 1982, a single that went platinum. The Lion King took it global in 1994. Disney’s US trademark on the phrase for clothing, granted in 2003, later drew a petition with more than 50,000 signatures. The phrase, meanwhile, is still free to say.
Kenya is on the Africa plan, so the same eSIM works from the moment you land at Jomo Kenyatta International, in Mombasa and on the beach at Diani, with nothing to change. Coverage follows the local network: strong in Nairobi, Mombasa and the towns, good on the main roads, and patchy to absent inside the parks, where many camps offer Wi-Fi instead.
A safari that crosses into Tanzania keeps the allowance — the Serengeti and the Mara are one ecosystem split by a border — and so does a detour to Uganda or Rwanda. The parks are offline for long stretches on any network, so download maps, tickets and camp directions in Nairobi before the drive, and let the camp Wi-Fi handle the evening messages.
Answers about data, coverage and setup for Kenya.
Partly, as with any SIM. The signal comes and goes inside the reserve, and long stretches of a game drive have none at all. Many camps offer Wi-Fi, often by satellite, which is fine for messages and slow for uploading photographs. Download maps, tickets and camp directions before you leave Nairobi, and treat the Mara as offline by default — the animals will not mind.
No. M-Pesa lives on a Safaricom line registered with an ID or passport, and onesim is data-only, so there is no Kenyan number to attach it to. Most visitors manage without it: hotels and lodges take cards, and the Mara Triangle’s park fees are cashless. The exception to plan for is the Madaraka Express to Mombasa, which takes M-Pesa or payment at the station counter, not cards.
Not by the Africa package. Ethiopia is not on its list, and the United Arab Emirates and Qatar belong to the Middle East plan, so the layover runs on airport Wi-Fi unless you add a Middle East package to the same eSIM. The Africa package starts the first time the phone connects in a country on its list, which for most trips means landing in Nairobi.
