Malaba Border Post (Uganda-Kenya) | Customs and Immigration

Have done about 14 land borders across southern and East Africa. This is the worst one for harassment I have experinced. Fixers are not fixers here and cause a lot of drama and confusion. Highly recommend an alternative crossing because of hassle and harassment that wastes a lot of time. Vehicle process took 3 hours due to interference. Process is actually very simple.
Go to customs get form
Walk to exit gate to get someone to sign a paper to allow inspection - expect a request for tea money
Person arrives at car with fat lazy dog to inspect vehicle logbook and chassis number (thoroughly). No search is undertaken of the inside of the vehicle. The person who looks at the chassis needs to sign the same paper.
Go back to customs office to get them to calculate road tax-at the moment minimum payable is 14 days worth and everyone must do this.
Walk 750km into Kenya to bank. Down the main road on the RHS. (you must have your entry to Kenya to be ble to do this). Expect verbal sexual harassment.
Take bank receipt as proof you paid
Walk back to border with receipt to give to customs (fixer will probably mpesa this but with hassle and their constant harassment I did not use them and did the process myself)
Customs checked their bank account to see if the money went in (2400 ksh)
Customs officer then checked log book, ownership details, authority to have the vehicle, comesa etc
Customs very helpful when they understand you are not going to use a fixer - offered me a seat in the office and explained each step of the process from here
Many photocopies made. One original you keep with all the stamps on. Another copy is made for the gate and one for police.
Take one copy to police station in the building behind customs and they keep one and log your details in a book- you need your passport for this.
When police have done this you can leave with your vehicle. take one copy of the papers to the exit gate. Make sure the customers officer tells you exactly which one as the gate (and fixers) will try to tell you there is a problem and try take your originals off you and tell you they need to assist you back at the office. (they were pulling on the papers in my hand but I held them tightly as the customs officer advised me not to hand these to anyone)
The truck drivers around are quite helpful too.
Highly recommend you do not use this crossing and am sure there must be easier options. At this border the fixers are not genuine fixers trying to make a few dollars and genuinely assist you.

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Uganda to Kenya
1. Try to pass all the trucks until you are in front of a small gate.
2. Register your car at this gate and continue.
3. Get an Covid test at one of the three test locations. The closest one is Test and Fly. Just around the corner is another one. You can also continue to the one stop border (emigration and immigration, step 6) where there is another one.
4. Go to the Uganda customs and exit the Carnet de Passage.
5. Continue driving and pass all trucks. somewhere at the left (behind all the trucks) is a parking for normal cars. Park here and walk back to the one stop border.
6. Begin with the health check. Show your PCR and vaccinations/booster.
7. The next window is the Uganda emigration and Kenya immigration.
8. The last window is the Kenyan customs where you can stamp your Carnet de Passage in.
9 That's all and enter Kenya.

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Crossing from Kenya to Uganda. Kenya side pretty hectic, fixers were chasing after our bike. We paid a small price for one just to get the others to leave us alone as they followed us pretty much throughout the process. Our COVID vaccination certificates were not accepted and we paid 155000shs for covid test, 1.5hrs for result. Cannot enter without an e-visa here, they’ll make you turn back and apply for one. Charged 60USD for temporary vehicle tax for a motorcycle. A smaller border is probably a better option if you can, although we’ve heard the roads aren’t good on a bike after rain which is why we came here.

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Kenya -> Uganda
The road to get to this border is packed with trucks. Just drive around them, all TWENTY KILOMETERS worth. (I asked, it literally takes a truck driver 2 days just to get to the border!)

On Kenya side:
Just stamp out carnet. Fixers will approach you from all angles and were incredibly annoying. You do not need them. But getting rid of them is difficult, and they actually lied to us that we had to show our COVID card, but we did not need to do this.
After you stamp your carnet, you can drive to the other side.
Of note, the Kenya customs office is to the far right of the parking lot and you want to go to that building. It's a little confusing because driving in we ended up on the far left.

On Uganda Side:
Stamp out of Kenya
Stamp into Uganda
* We are both vaccinated against COVID and had to show our card at both counters

Then walk through to pay road tax. Apparently mid last month they updated their system and now you must buy road tax for 3 months. You cannot buy for less. Price is 60USD for 3mo. You will get a ticket and pay at the nearby bank.

In total, spent 1hr40min at this border. Workers were incredibly slow, otherwise an easy border crossing. Despite the massive lineup of trucks that might indicate otherwise, it wasn't exceptionally busy.

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Uganda - Kenya (with no carnet for the car)

Leaving Uganda- passport stamped, showed yellow visa booklet and got temperature taken.

Entering Kenya- in the same building on the next counter, East African visa stamped for 30days.

Then to customs for the car.
Showed Comesa,
vehicle registration docs,
East African community vehicle document (that we had to get to enter Uganda).
Also showed them our sworn affidavit and agreement of sale documents (as the car is not registered in our name) Then he checked chassis number in engine.

Also need a filled out c23 form,
we didn’t have this so walked to a cyber shop to print out paid 300KSH (which is way overpriced for printing two sheets of paper.)
Then back to customs for this to be stamped. .

All in all took 1.5-2 hours.
Would have been quicker if we had the C23 with us.
No problems without the carnet, very easy boarder crossing.

We got a Temporary Import Permit for 14 days for free. No road tax either. Very cheap boarder crossing.

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Uganda -->Kenya
Process as described. Easy visa stamp out of Uganda and easy visa stamp into Kenya. Took under 1 hour total. 14-day free TIP for Kenya. (We are travelling w/o carnet-no issues here.)

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From Uganda to Kenya: if you stay in Kenya for more than 2 weeks you need to pay road tax. Till 2000 cc it’s 20 USD (in ksh) above 40 USD. You have to pay that at the bank in town, around 750 meters into Kenya.

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Uganda to Kenya in a big-rig.

Busy border with construction going on. Stop at Uganda side first to stamp carnet. If you didn't pay your road tax coming in (e.g system was down) you need to pay here. This advice will apply to people entering Uganda too. The URA official will give you 2 pieces of paper quoting the amount due. There is a small desk behind which seems to be URA but is not. If you have cash then you can pay them (plus a 'bank fee' of 2500) otherwise go to the Diamond Trust Bank at the gate (upstairs) and pay them there. Money changers offer awful rates here.

After carnet is stamped out go to Kenyan side. Roadworks make this difficult and people who guide you ask for money. Ignore all the trucks and drive past them, once you rejoin the tarmac go into the (one way) car park on the left. Go to immigration first (Uganda then Kenya) then go to Kenyan road tax window to sort out carnet. Will need to pay road tax if you are a big rig or staying 14+ days. Fee is based on km travel like Namibia and Zambia. We paid 40 usd to the TZ border near Arusha. If bank is closed then you need to pay by SafariCom mobile money. An agent can help you for a large (5usd) fee.

Ugandan side took 3 hours (!!!) Kenya side 45 min. Always have USD cash in case banks are closed/incompatible. There is an ATM at the Ugandan side but it did not work on 3 of our cards.

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Kenya > Uganda

Kenya side
We had our carnets stamped the day before because we came over Turkana so we didn’t have to pay the road tax even though we stayed 15 days in the country.

Uganda side
Process as described and quite easy albeit a bit slow. In the customs office we had to go upstairs but were brought here by some guy. Said we were going to Kampala and then had to pay $20 per motorcycle for road tax. Received a payment slip and had to pay at the bank at the back where there is also an ATM.

While riding out at the gate we had to register with the police and show our carnets and road tax receipts again. After very slowly filling everything in he asked us what was in the bags. We said camping gear and clothes and he let us pass without wanting to see anything.

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Border crossing open 24h also on Sunday.
Crossing FROM KENYA TO UGANDA:
Kenyan side - you only stamp out your carnet. We were in Kenya 14 days and didn't pay any road tax.
Ugandan side (after bridge):
In immigration you do exit stamp from Kenya and entry to Uganda.
Road tax is 20$ but paid only in cash in ugandan shylings. You can change money from kenyan shyling to ugandan on the border in the bank or next to custom office (but it's much more expensive). There is also ATM in front of the bank!
Don't use any fixer, not necessary.
Buy SIM card in Tororo for 3000 ugx.

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From Kenya to Uganda:
- Kenya side very easy, just drive by all the trucks: Carnet stamped, he did not check our road tax (but we stayed in between the 14 days according to our carnet stamp in Nairobi so maybe that was the reason, coming from Lake Turkana we did not have any forms of the road tax stuff and that was no issue). Passport exit stamp is at the Uganda side in the same building as the entry stamp for Uganda (across the bridge).
- Uganda side took us 2 hours, it was not complicated, just very slow. Be aware to bring a printed copy of your e-visum. We had to go to a copy shop (it’s outside the border area but close, a friendly guy helped us with that) because they refused to try to scan the barcode from our phone. Road tax can only be paid in cash (despite all the visa/MasterCard signs), just say you’re going to Kampala and it will be $20.

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We rode from Kenya to Uganda. Kenya stamped out Carnets without looking at the motorcycles. Then we had to continue over a very dusty bridge to Uganda side. There we paid about 20USD for vehicle permit and 50USD for 30 day visa each. The bank only accepts cash and for visas they only accept USD. Again, nobody looked at the motorcycles. Very easy and rather fast crossing. Only the line at the bank took some time.

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Busy Border, hundreds of Trucks.

Leaving Uganda:
1) Registered at the Police.
2) Went to Customs, Carnet got stamped and Road Tax Receipt got stamped.
No Fees, done in 15 Minutes.

Entering Kenya:
1) Drove over to Kenyan Side. The Road was bad and full of Trucks, it took some Time and the One Stop Building is a bit of a Hassle to get to. Went to Immigration first, filled out Ugandan Exit Form. Passports got stamped out at Ugandan Counter.
2) Health Department checked our Vaccinations and Temperature.
3) Stamped in Passports at Kenyan Counter and took Fingerprints (we are traveling on the East African Tourist Visa).
4) Went to Customs. They asked for our Carnet but we said we have none (ours is almost finished). So after some Talking they just stamped our old TIP from Tanzania... :) We paid no Road Tax because we said we want to leave Kenya within the 14 Days (14 Days are free).
5) Registered at Police while driving out.
So the Kenyan Side also was completely free but took us more than one Hour.

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