eSIM and SIM cards in Kenya

Do this at the airport

• Safaricom and Airtel both have counters in the JKIA arrivals hall, open for the late arrivals.
• Take your passport. Registration is legally required and is done at the counter in a few minutes.
• Safaricom's Jambo tourist bundles are aimed at you: around KES 1,000 for 5 GB, several hundred minutes and 30 days.
• Airtel is cheaper for pure data and thinner on coverage once you leave the highways.
• Ask them to set up M-Pesa while you are standing there. A visitor can register with a passport, and it is much harder to arrange later.

Why M-Pesa matters more than the data

• M-Pesa is how the country actually pays. Matatus, taxis, market stalls, park gates, tips, a soda at a petrol station.
• You load cash onto the line at any agent - there is one on every street - and pay by phone number or till number.
• Card acceptance is limited to hotels, malls and restaurants, and cash is increasingly awkward.
• It works with a foreign passport and a local SIM, and this is the single most useful thing a visitor can arrange in their first hour.

Coverage

• Safaricom's 4G covers Nairobi, Mombasa, the main roads and most of the safari areas including the Mara and Amboseli.
• Signal in the parks is real but patchy - present at the lodges and the gates, absent in the middle of a game drive.
• The north and northeast are thin. Assume nothing beyond Isiolo.
• Wi-fi at safari lodges is common and slow, often satellite.

eSIM

• Saily's Kenya plans run USD 7.99 for 1 GB over 7 days, USD 31.99 for 5 GB over 30 days and USD 47.99 for 10 GB.
• An eSIM gives you data and not M-Pesa, which is the trade.
• The sensible combination is an eSIM for the landing and a Safaricom SIM the same day, if you want to be online before you reach the counter.