Kenya transit visa: transit eTA and airside exemption

The exemption list adopted in the 2025 amendment rules covers all passengers in transit who arrive and leave on the same aircraft or transfer to another aircraft without leaving the precincts of a Kenyan airport. The same applies to ship passengers who stay on board, to crew listed on the manifest who continue to a destination outside Kenya and to owners of private aircraft refuelling without leaving the airport. These travellers need neither an eTA nor a pass.

If your connection requires you to pass immigration, for example to change airports, collect bags, stay overnight in a city hotel or travel overland to a neighbouring country, you need a transit eTA. The eTA portal describes it as the authorisation for travellers on a transit flight through Kenya and prices it at USD 20. Travellers who are not eTA-exempt and fly to a third country via Nairobi or Mombasa fall under this rule when they leave the airport.

Regulation 31 allows an immigration officer to issue a transit pass to a person entering Kenya only to travel to a destination outside Kenya, who holds the documents needed to enter that destination and is otherwise admissible there. At the port of entry, filling in the entry declaration counts as the application. The transit pass is endorsed in the passport, is free of charge under the fee schedule, and is valid for the period stated in it, never more than three days. The older transit visa under regulation 17 also had a three-day limit; its function is now covered by the transit eTA.

Besides the approved transit eTA, carry a passport valid for at least six months, the onward ticket or boarding pass and any visa or authorisation required by your final destination. Immigration officers may ask for evidence of onward travel and of enough funds for your short stay, and both arrivals and departures involve biometric capture. If you enter Kenya after 5 October 2026, check whether the inbound travel health insurance applies to you: according to an official Kenyan notice, only transit passengers who do not clear immigration or seek entry are exempt.

The transit eTA is requested on etakenya.go.ke like other eTAs. Decisions generally come within three working days, so apply well before departure; if time is short, the express option for an extra USD 100 is processed immediately. Airlines are legally required not to board passengers without a valid eTA when one is needed, and carriers that bring such passengers face a surcharge and must fly them back.