Visit West Kenya!

Money

Any traveler needs money. In Kenya that's the Kenya Shilling. This page gives some information about what to expect.

Rate

At the time of writing the exchange rate is around 69 KSh for a US dollar or around 90 KSh for a Euro.

Cash

Kenyan money comes in these denominations:
Coins 1 - 5 - 10 - 20 KSh. There is a rare 40 KSh with President Kibaki on the reverse side (Ask a Kenyan for the story behind that one).
Bills 50 - 100 - 200 - 500 - 1000 KSh. There used to be a 20 KSh, but that one should not appear in your hands anymore.

Forex

Changing money can be done at a bank, at official forex bureaus and by officially sanctioned money changers at certain places.
Banks - Banks advertise their forex rates only inside.
Forex bureaus - Any town with a chance of a tourist has a forex bureau. Kisumu has two or three. The rates are advertised on the outside and you might want to compare before you change.
Money changers - Officially sanctioned money changers exist at some border crossings, e.g. the Kenya side of the Busia and Malaba borders. Be extremely carefull, count your money, don't let them out of your sight before the deal is over.
While most of the money changers are just folks trying to earn a living, there are bad examples among them, so be careful. Especially with the Uganda money it is easy to mistake a 10,000 USh for a 100,000 USh. Also there are fake US Dollar bills around. If you want to change USD for KSh a known trick is that they swap your bill for a fake one and then change the rate so that you cancel the deal. You are then left with the fake one. In general, change only small amounts at places like that.

ATMs

Perhaps the easiest way to get money is to just use an ATM. Most of a medium and large towns now have a bank with an ATM and there are now also independent ATMs around. In the shopping malls in Kisumu you can even choose.
The most commonly accepted ATM cards are MasterCard, Cirrus and VISA, check the logos on your card and on the machine.

Credit cards

The larger hotels, airlines and supermarkets have a facility to pay by credit card (especially VISA). However, don't expect it to be common and always carry at least some cash or check in advance with the place you are going to. Restaurants and shops as a rule do not have a credit card machine.

Bargaining

Many places in Kenya have 'fixed prices'. However, when buying things on the street or in a market it is common to bargain for your purchase. See the Shopping page.

Tipping

In many situations in the tourism sector tipping is common, especially in restaurants, hotels etc. Visitors often ask how high the tip should be. In general around 100 - 150 KSh for a table of 4 is good. It is not common to calculate a tip as a percentage of the bill.
Some hotels and other establishments have a central tip box where you can put your, during your stay accumulated, tip money. The management will make sure that the tip is equally distributed over the staff. In such cases the staff is often actually not allowed to accept an individual tip. Please honour that system.

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