The official Kenya eTA costs $30. You apply at etakenya.go.ke, the Kenyan government’s own portal. Ten minutes to fill out, a decision in 24 to 72 hours, and you’re cleared to board. That’s the whole process.

The problem is that when you search “Kenya eTA” or “Kenya visa online,” the first several results are frequently not etakenya.go.ke. They’re third-party sites (names like KenyaVisaOnline.net, Kenya-eTA.com, and a dozen others that look like government portals until you read the fine print), and they charge $80 to $150 per person for the same authorization you can get yourself for $30. The markup isn’t a rounding error. It’s $50 to $120 per person. A family of four gets hit for up to $400 before they’ve booked a single lodge night.

Kenya’s Directorate of Immigration Services has issued official warnings about fraudulent eTA websites. The Kenya Embassy in Ireland published a public notice titled “FRAUDULENT E-VISA APPLICATION WEBSITES.” Safari operators report clients who accidentally paid scam sites and then blamed them for recommending a destination with a confusing entry process. Some scrapped the trip entirely. The fake sites stay up regardless, because Kenya’s government doesn’t control what Google’s ad auction runs above its own portal.

This matters specifically for safari travelers. Get the eTA wrong (pay a fake site, receive a delayed or rejected authorization, show up at check-in without valid approval) and you miss a flight to Nairobi. Which means you miss a safari that took a year to plan and can’t be refunded at 24 hours’ notice.

Quick Facts — Kenya eTA 2026

Detail	Info
Official cost	$30 USD
Official portal	etakenya.go.ke
Who needs it	All foreign nationals except citizens of most African countries (exempt since July 2025, except Libya and Somalia). US, UK, EU, Australia, and Canada all need one.
Stay allowed	90 days per entry
Processing time	24–72 hours typical; apply at least 2 weeks before travel
Application window	Up to 3 months before arrival
What scam sites charge	$80–$150 per person
Scam site markup per person	$50–$120
Official government domain	Ends in .go.ke — not .com, .net, or .org

In one sentence: Kenya’s eTA is a $30 pre-approval from etakenya.go.ke required for every foreign visitor — scam sites charging $80–$150 for the same form appear above the real portal in search results, and safari travelers can’t afford to get this wrong.

What Is the Kenya eTA?

Kenya replaced its previous visa-on-arrival system with a mandatory Electronic Travel Authorization in January 2024. Most foreign nationals entering Kenya need an approved eTA before their trip — citizens of most African countries have been exempt since July 2025 (Libya and Somalia excepted), but for everyone else there’s no visa-on-arrival fallback and no sorting it out at the airport.

The Directorate of Immigration Services describes it as an online pre-clearance that replaced what was previously either an embassy process or an arrival queue at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The shift to a fully online system was designed to speed up entry and modernize Kenya’s tourism infrastructure. It also created a new surface for scam operators who understood — correctly — that travelers searching for “Kenya visa” would click the first result without checking whether it was the government.

The authorization itself is simple: fill out your personal and travel details on the government portal, pay the $30 fee, wait for an emailed approval, and present it at boarding. Airlines verify eTA approval when they issue your boarding pass. Immigration officers at Kenyan airports check it again on arrival. No QR code complications, no additional forms on the plane. Just the approval document — on your phone or printed.

Why Searching “Kenya eTA” Is the Problem

Here’s the mechanism. Google displays paid advertisements at the top of search results. Scam sites buy those ad slots targeting terms like “Kenya eTA,” “Kenya visa online,” and “Kenya entry requirements 2026.” A traveler who clicks the top result often lands on a paid placement — not etakenya.go.ke, which may appear further down in organic results behind two or three sponsored links.

The fake sites mimic everything about the official portal. Same color scheme. Similar language. Some clone the visual layout so closely that the difference isn’t visible on a quick scroll. They complete the application on your behalf by filling in the same government form you could fill in yourself, charge $80 to $150 for the service, keep the $50 to $120 difference, and pass your passport data through a third-party server in the process.

Malindikenya.net has documented the pattern extensively: dozens of fraudulent sites ranking above the official portal, charging $50 to $150 above the government fee, mimicking official portals well enough that travelers don’t realize they’ve used a third-party until they see the charge description on their credit card statement.

The passport data angle makes this worse than a price markup. Your passport number, travel dates, home address, and payment credentials — all entered into a server that isn’t the Kenyan government. What happens to that data beyond submitting the form is unknowable.

How to Apply for the Kenya eTA

The only portal that produces a valid Kenya eTA is etakenya.go.ke. Every other site either routes through it (and charges for the routing), or doesn’t and produces a worthless confirmation.

The application:

1. Go to etakenya.go.ke. The domain ends in .go.ke — Kenya’s official government extension. Type it directly into your browser. Bookmark it.
2. Create an account with your email address.
3. Enter your passport details: full name exactly as it appears on your passport, passport number, nationality, date of birth, and expiry date.
4. Enter your travel details: intended arrival date, your first address in Kenya (hotel name and city is sufficient), purpose of visit.
5. Upload a scan or photo of your passport’s biographical page.
6. Pay $30 via credit or debit card.
7. Submit. You’ll get an immediate reference number and an approval (or request for clarification) within 24 to 72 hours by email.

Save the approval email in two places — in your inbox and as a downloaded PDF or screenshot saved to your photos. Airlines verify eTA approval at check-in. Print a copy for good measure if you’re the belt-and-suspenders type.

The Timing That Actually Works

Apply at least two weeks before travel. Processing typically runs 24 to 72 hours, but Kenya’s Directorate of Immigration recommends two weeks as a practical buffer for corrections — a name discrepancy between your passport and application, a document quality issue, anything that needs a resubmission before approval clears.

Apply within three months of your departure date — the eTA is valid for 90 days from approval, so applying earlier than that means it expires before you travel. If you’re building an East Africa itinerary around the Serengeti or Maasai Mara migration season, the camps and flights book 9 to 12 months out — lock those in early, then set a calendar reminder to handle the eTA once you’re within 90 days of your departure.

Who Needs It

Every foreign national except citizens of most African countries. As of July 2025, Kenya officially eliminated the eTA requirement for African countries, granting visa-free entry for up to 90 days — with Libya and Somalia as the only exceptions. So South Africans, Nigerians, Ghanaians, and most other African passport holders no longer need one.

Everyone else does. US citizens, UK citizens, EU passport holders, Australians, Canadians — all required to apply.

This catches Americans off guard because the entry process changed significantly. US citizens previously needed a Kenya visa, but could obtain one on arrival at Kenyan airports or through the eVisa portal — options that no longer exist under the eTA-only system introduced in January 2024.

The upside: the eTA allows 90-day stays per entry. Most safari itineraries run 7 to 14 days. You’re getting three months of authorization for $30. For travelers planning to combine a Kenyan safari with Uganda or a Rwanda gorilla trek — a natural pairing in East Africa — the Kenya eTA handles the Kenyan leg; the neighboring countries each have their own separate entry requirements to plan for.

For Safari Planners Specifically

The scam risk is higher for safari bookings than for almost any other travel type, because of how safari trips are structured.

Peak Kenyan safari slots — particularly in the Maasai Mara during the July to October Great Migration period — book out a year in advance. Deposits are non-refundable. Connecting domestic flights from Nairobi to bush airstrips run on small charter aircraft with no capacity for last-minute changes. The entire trip depends on a single chain of connections working.

If you miss your Nairobi departure because you were denied boarding at your home airport for an invalid eTA — or if the scam site you used submitted your application with a name that doesn’t match your passport, and your authorization is flagged on arrival — you’re not rescheduling. You’re forfeiting a trip that took a year to build.

This makes Kenya meaningfully different from a destination like Cancún, where scam sites run a nearly identical playbook on Mexico’s VISITAX fee but there’s a physical checkpoint at the airport where you can pay at the last minute on your phone. Kenya’s eTA check happens at your home airport, not at Nairobi’s arrival hall. The airline checks it before issuing a boarding pass. There’s no fallback.

Getting turned away from a $6,000 safari for a $30 form that you paid $80 for from the wrong website is genuinely one of the avoidable travel disasters that ruins a major trip.

The One Detail That Prevents This Entirely

The official Kenya eTA portal ends in .go.ke. That’s Kenya’s government domain extension. The equivalent of .gov in the United States, .gov.uk in the UK, .gov.au in Australia.

Any eTA site not on a .go.ke domain is not the Kenyan government.

• Official: etakenya.go.ke ✓
• Official alternative: immigration.go.ke/eta ✓
• Everything else: Not the government

Type the URL directly. Don’t click search ads. Don’t click the top Google result without checking the address bar. That’s the entire defense — one habit, ten seconds, $50–$120 saved per person.

If You’ve Already Used a Third-Party Site

If you applied through a non-.go.ke site and received a confirmation, check the document carefully. A valid Kenya eTA approval will:

• Reference etakenya.go.ke and the Kenyan government in the approval header
• Include an official government reference number
• List your name, passport number, and approved dates exactly as entered
• Come directly from a @immigration.go.ke or official Kenyan government email address

If your confirmation is just an invoice from the third-party company with no official Kenyan government reference number embedded, your eTA may not actually exist in the government’s system. Apply again at etakenya.go.ke — if the system shows a pending application for your passport, contact the Directorate directly at the email on the portal. Then confirm with your airline what documentation they need to see at check-in.

The Bottom Line

Kenya’s eTA is $30. The official portal is etakenya.go.ke. Processing takes 24 to 72 hours, apply at least two weeks before travel, and apply within 90 days of departure (the authorization expires 90 days after approval). Most African countries are exempt since July 2025 — everyone else needs one, including US citizens who previously applied for a visa on arrival or through the eVisa portal.

Scam sites charging $80 to $150 appear above the official portal in Google search results. Kenya’s Immigration Department has warned about them. They stay up. So the practical move is to never arrive at this form via a search ad — type the .go.ke address directly, apply, pay $30, save the approval document, done.

If Kenya is anywhere in your plans — Maasai Mara, Amboseli, the Swahili Coast, Nairobi as a transit hub — do this now. Not the week before the flight.

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Kenya eTA official portal: etakenya.go.ke. Kenya Directorate of Immigration Services: immigration.go.ke/eta. Information current as of June 2026 — verify current requirements before travel.