Much of a trip to Kenya runs through your phone. The entry permit is applied for online before you fly, tickets for the national parks are bought online, and the messages that keep a safari on time, with your driver, your guide and your lodge, all need a connection. On 6 November 2026 we took the nine packages listed on Airalo's Kenya page and matched each one with the plan of ours that gives the same data or more, for the same number of days or more. All nine cost more than that plan of ours, from nearly half as much again to twice as much. Airalo lists no 20 GB package and no unlimited data for Kenya; we sell both. Our Kenya plans run on Safaricom, the network that held close to seven in ten of Kenya's mobile subscriptions at the end of June 2026. Below: the comparison size by size, the network, what each kind of Kenya trip needs, when unlimited is worth it, three things a data-only eSIM cannot do in Kenya and the way round each, and what to sort before you fly.
Kenya prices next to Airalo's, size by size
The two ranges are not built the same way. Airalo's smallest Kenya package is 1 GB for three days, where ours is 1 GB for a week. Its 3 GB comes as a three-day or a seven-day package, while ours runs for 30 days. Only at 5 GB and 10 GB do both of us sell a 30-day option, and there the difference is plain: ours costs about half at 5 GB and a third less at 10 GB.
Buying Airalo's shorter packages does not narrow it. Its 5 GB and 10 GB weeks are priced almost level with its own months, so a short trip pays close to the month price either way. Across its whole Kenya page, there is no package that undercuts the plan of ours with the same data or more, for the same days or more.
Two sizes are ours alone. Airalo lists no 20 GB package for Kenya and no unlimited data, so a traveller who needs more than 10 GB there has to buy a second package or look elsewhere. We sell a 20 GB month, and unlimited data for 3, 7, 14 or 30 days.
Prices move, so treat these as a snapshot: Airalo's were read from its Kenya page on 6 November 2026, and ours are live. Here is each size against the Airalo package whose length is nearest to 30 days:
- 1 GB: ours costs half as much, and lasts seven days instead of three
- 3 GB: ours costs 44 per cent less, and lasts 30 days instead of seven
- 5 GB for 30 days: ours costs 47 per cent less
- 10 GB for 30 days: ours costs a third less
- 20 GB for 30 days: Airalo sells no 20 GB package for Kenya
- Unlimited for a week or a month: Airalo sells none for Kenya
Safaricom: the network behind our Kenya plans
Every Kenya plan we sell connects through Safaricom, on 4G. It is Kenya's largest mobile network by subscriptions: at the end of June 2026 it held 69.8 per cent of the country's mobile subscriptions, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya, the regulator. There is nothing to pick: turn on data roaming for the Lumbus line and the phone joins Safaricom by itself.
Our plans that cover Kenya along with other countries work differently. Our Africa plan and our global plans connect in Kenya through Airtel, on 5G. If Kenya is your only country, the Kenya plan is the one on Safaricom, and it is also the cheaper buy at every size.
No network reaches every corner of a big game reserve. Away from the main roads and the lodges, the signal comes and goes, whoever you are with, so on a game drive, count on mobile data when it shows up and plan as if it will not. The safari section below covers how to plan around the gaps.
What a Kenya trip spends its data on
Most of a Kenya trip's data goes on maps, ride-hailing apps in Nairobi and Mombasa, messages and photos. The heavy users are video calls, uploading video and streaming. Keep those for Wi-Fi where you can and a small plan lasts a long time; do them on mobile data every day and you need a bigger one. Our data guide sets out how much each app uses.
A safari changes the rhythm of the day. On game drives the signal comes and goes, so photos and videos tend to wait for the evening, sent from the lodge on its Wi-Fi if it has one, or on mobile data if it does not. Ask each lodge before you go: the answer decides whether a small plan is enough.
On the coast, beach days, taxis, restaurant bookings and video calls home all run on mobile data unless the hotel's Wi-Fi reaches you. If your trip ends there, size the plan for that week as well as for the safari.
Unlimited in Kenya: worth it for one heavy week
With our Kenya unlimited plans, the first 3 GB you use each day run at full speed. Past that, the line slows to 1 Mbps, which keeps maps and messages going but is too slow for HD video, and full speed comes back 24 hours later. You can buy 3, 7, 14 or 30 days. Airalo sells no unlimited data for Kenya, so the only fair test is against our own fixed plans.
Against those, unlimited pays only on a short, heavy trip. Three days of it cost about a sixth less than the 10 GB month, and a week costs a little less than the 20 GB month. Two weeks cost nearly twice the 20 GB month, and a month over three and a half times as much.
So if a trip of three to seven days would need the 10 GB or 20 GB month anyway, because you upload video every evening or run a laptop through the phone's hotspot, unlimited for those days is the cheaper buy. For two weeks or longer, the 20 GB month costs a little over half of two weeks of unlimited, so unless you will use more than 20 GB in that time, the month is the cheaper buy.
Three things a data-only eSIM cannot do in Kenya
M-Pesa. Kenya's mobile money is tied to a Kenyan phone number. Our eSIM is a data line with no number of its own, so it cannot hold an M-Pesa account. If you want M-Pesa itself, you need a local Kenyan line for it alongside the eSIM.
Paying for train tickets online. The Madaraka Express, the train between Nairobi and Mombasa, takes two kinds of payment: M-Pesa through a phone's SIM toolkit, which needs a Kenyan SIM, and payment over the counter at its stations. Without a Kenyan line, buy your ticket at the counter.
Texts to your usual number. Bank codes and some app logins arrive by SMS to the number you have at home. Keep your home SIM switched on alongside the eSIM so those texts still reach you, and set mobile data to the Lumbus line. Calls work the same way: there is no Kenyan number to call from, but WhatsApp calls run over the data, and your WhatsApp account stays the one you already have.
Before you fly: the eTA, the install and offline copies
Unless your passport is on Kenya's exempt list, you need an eTA, Kenya's electronic travel authorisation, applied for online before the trip. The exempt list is made up mainly of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries plus a handful of others, and it does not include ordinary passports from the UK, the United States, the Gulf states or the European Union apart from Cyprus. Kenya's immigration service says applications are usually processed in three working days, offers an urgent service, and recommends applying at least two weeks before you travel.
The application asks for an email address and a phone number, your arrival and departure dates and your accommodation booking, so have those to hand. Apply only on the official eTA site.
Install the eSIM at home, while you are on a steady connection. A Kenya plan begins counting its days on landing, once the eSIM joins a Kenyan network with data roaming switched on, so installing early costs you none of the plan's days. Then save offline copies of what you will need on arrival: your eTA, your first night's booking, and offline maps of Nairobi and of the parks you will visit.
On safari: park tickets, signal and the migration months
Tickets for the parks run by Kenya Wildlife Service are sold online on KWSPay, its booking site, which uses an eCitizen login: you apply, pay and receive the ticket there. Tour operators can book a whole group's tickets on the same site, so ask yours whether park fees are included. If you are driving yourself, buy your tickets before you set off, while you still have a steady connection.
Out on game drives, expect the signal to come and go. Download offline maps before you leave Nairobi, start each day with a full battery, and let photos and videos wait until you are back within signal or on the lodge's Wi-Fi. Send the lodge your arrival time while you still have signal.
The Mara Conservancy, on its own site, says the wildebeest migration usually starts somewhere in June or July and goes on until November, and that river crossings happen often but are hard to predict. Its advice is to watch for herds massing along the river. If you plan to wait for a crossing, a charged phone and a power bank matter more than a big plan.
Nairobi to the coast on the Madaraka Express
The Madaraka Express runs between Nairobi and Mombasa three times a day in each direction, leaving both cities at the same times: 8 am, 3 pm and 10 pm. The morning train stops at seven stations on the way, Voi among them; the afternoon and night express trains stop only at Voi.
Booking opens 60 days ahead. As the railway takes payment by M-Pesa through a SIM toolkit or over the counter, a traveller without a Kenyan line buys at the counter in a Madaraka Express station. Carry the original passport you travel on: the railway asks for the original identity document and the ticket to board, and tickets can be printed at machines in its stations.
The railway lists Wi-Fi among its Premium Class services; in the other classes, plan on your own data for the ride. The coast is Kenya too, so from Mombasa down to Diani or up to Watamu and Lamu you stay on the same Kenya plan, with no second eSIM to buy.
Adding Tanzania, Zanzibar, Uganda or Rwanda
A Kenya plan works in Kenya only. If your trip goes on into Tanzania, for the Serengeti, Kilimanjaro or a beach week on Zanzibar, which is part of Tanzania, you either add a second plan or buy one that covers both countries.
Two country plans give you more data for the money. A Kenya plan and a Tanzania plan of 1 GB each cost a cent less than 1 GB on our Africa plan, and 3 GB each cost a cent less than the Africa plan's 3 GB, yet they give you twice the data, since each plan has its own. For a week in Kenya and a few days on Zanzibar, a Kenya 5 GB month plus a Tanzania 1 GB week cost a third less than 5 GB on our global plan, and give you a gigabyte more.
If you do not know your route, or you will cross back and forth, one eSIM on our global plan for 120+ destinations takes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda alike, and costs less than our Africa plan at every size the Africa plan comes in. Rwanda is on neither, so buy a Rwanda plan for the gorilla days. Data costs more beyond Kenya: our Tanzania plans run about 1.7 times the Kenya price, and our Uganda plans about twice up to 10 GB. Our AFCON 2027 guide goes through the three-country choices in more detail.
Our pick for each kind of Kenya trip
Each size below assumes everyday use on mobile data: directions, ride-hailing, messages and photos, while streaming and large uploads wait for a lodge or hotel connection. Sharing the plan through your phone's hotspot, or working from a laptop, calls for one size up.
Top-ups work on every Kenya plan but one: the one-day plan, marked "No top-ups" on its card. It gives 2 GB for a single day at a little under twice the price of the 1 GB week, and two days of it cost more than the 3 GB month, so it suits one heavy day and nothing longer.
By kind of trip:
- A Nairobi stopover or a two-day business visit: the 1 GB week
- A week on safari, with Wi-Fi at the lodges: the 3 GB month
- A week on safari, sending photos on mobile data: the 5 GB month
- Safari and then a week on the coast: the 10 GB month
- A month in Kenya, for work, volunteering or family: the 10 GB or 20 GB month
- Three to seven days of video uploads or a laptop on the hotspot: unlimited for 3 or 7 days
- Kenya and then Zanzibar or mainland Tanzania: a Kenya plan plus a Tanzania plan
- A route across East Africa you have not fixed yet: our global plan for 120+ destinations
Frequently asked questions
What is the best eSIM for Kenya?
For a trip in Kenya only, a Kenya plan sized to the trip: the 3 GB month for a week on safari, 5 GB if you will send photos on mobile data, and 10 GB for safari plus a week on the coast. Our Kenya plans run on Safaricom, and none of the nine packages on Airalo's Kenya page costs less than the plan of ours with the same data or more, for the same days or more. Airalo sells no 20 GB or unlimited data for Kenya.
Is Lumbus cheaper than Airalo for Kenya?
Yes, at every size Airalo sells there. Against its package closest to a month, ours costs half as much at 1 GB, 44 per cent less at 3 GB, 47 per cent less at 5 GB and a third less at 10 GB. We read Airalo's prices from its own Kenya page on 6 November 2026; prices change, so check before you buy.
Is a Lumbus Kenya eSIM on Safaricom or Airtel?
Safaricom, on 4G, for every Kenya plan. It is Kenya's largest mobile network by subscriptions, with 69.8 per cent of the country's mobile subscriptions at the end of June 2026 by the regulator's count. Our Africa plan and our global plans use Airtel in Kenya instead, on 5G.
Does Airalo sell 20 GB or unlimited data for Kenya?
Not on its Kenya page as we read it on 6 November 2026: its largest Kenya package was 10 GB, and it listed no unlimited data. We sell a 20 GB month, and unlimited data for 3, 7, 14 or 30 days: full speed for 3 GB a day, then 1 Mbps until full speed returns 24 hours later.
Will 3 GB last a safari week in Kenya?
Yes, if your lodges have Wi-Fi for the evenings. If you will send photos on mobile data, take 5 GB, and if the week ends on the coast, 10 GB. Video calls and uploading video are what push a plan up, so save them for Wi-Fi where you can.
Is there phone signal on a game drive in the Maasai Mara?
Sometimes. In the big reserves the signal comes and goes on every network once you are away from the main roads and the lodges. Download offline maps before you set off, message the lodge while you still have signal, and let photos wait for the evening.
Can I buy Madaraka Express tickets without M-Pesa?
Yes, at the counter in a Madaraka Express station. The railway's two ways to pay are M-Pesa through a SIM toolkit, which needs a Kenyan SIM, and payment over the counter. Booking opens 60 days ahead, and you board with your original passport and your ticket.
How early should I apply for Kenya's eTA?
Kenya's immigration service recommends at least two weeks before you travel. Applications are usually processed in three working days, and there is an urgent service. You need one unless your passport is on the exempt list, which does not include ordinary passports from the UK, the United States, the Gulf states or the European Union apart from Cyprus.
Will a Kenya eSIM work in Tanzania or Zanzibar?
No. A Kenya plan works in Kenya only. For Tanzania, including Zanzibar, add a Tanzania plan on the same phone, or take our global plan for 120+ destinations, which covers Kenya and Tanzania on one eSIM.
Is the Kenya one-day plan worth buying?
Only for one heavy day. It gives 2 GB for a single day, costs a little under twice the 1 GB week and takes no top-ups, and two days of it cost more than the 3 GB month.
Can I share my Kenya data with others in the safari vehicle?
Yes. Hotspot is included, so one phone can share its plan with a companion's phone or a laptop. Size up for it: two people on one plan use about twice the data.
When do the days on my Kenya plan start counting?
From the eSIM's first connection to a Kenyan network with data roaming on, not from the day you buy or install it. Install it before you leave home, then turn the line on after you land.
Can I top up my Kenya eSIM if I run low?
Yes, on every Kenya plan except the one-day plan, which is marked "No top-ups". Unlimited plans take more days while the eSIM is active.