Practical4 min read
Getting from JKIA to Upper Hill
Roughly 18km, and anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour and a half depending entirely on when you land. What to expect, and what to arrange before you fly.
Jomo Kenyatta International is about eighteen kilometres south-east of Upper Hill. That number tells you almost nothing useful. The journey takes twenty-five minutes on a clear Sunday morning and can take an hour and a half on a weekday evening, and the difference is entirely traffic.
The realistic numbers
- Late evening or early morning — 25 to 35 minutes. Most long-haul flights land in this window, which is the one piece of luck built into the schedule.
- Mid-morning or early afternoon — 40 to 60 minutes.
- Weekday evening rush — an hour and a half is not unusual. Landing at five on a Friday is the worst case in the week.
The Nairobi Expressway runs from the airport past Upper Hill and has genuinely changed the run. It is tolled, the fare is added to your fare, and it is worth it almost every time. If a driver suggests avoiding it to save a few hundred shillings during rush hour, decline politely.
How to get there
- Ride-hailing. Uber and Bolt both operate at JKIA and are what most people use. Cheapest and entirely normal. There is a designated pickup area — follow the signs rather than the first person who offers.
- Airport taxi. A fixed fare from the rank. More expensive, no app needed, and simple if you land without a working SIM.
- A pre-arranged transfer. Someone at arrivals with your name. The most expensive option and, after a long flight or with an unwell family member, sometimes the only sensible one.
Buy a SIM in the arrivals hall before you leave the terminal. Safaricom and Airtel both have counters, it takes a few minutes with a passport, and it makes ride-hailing, M-Pesa and every phone call afterwards straightforward. It is the single highest-value fifteen minutes of the trip.
Arriving late
Plenty of flights land after ten at night. Upper Hill is quiet and well lit, and the roads at that hour are the easiest they get, but arriving late is worth checking with wherever you are staying — not every place can let you in at three in the morning.
Ours can. The door has a smart lock and the building has 24-hour security, so nobody has to wait up: your access code and directions come by email 24 hours before you arrive, and you let yourself in whatever the hour.
Leaving
Going the other way, add a margin. Security at JKIA is thorough and the queue is unpredictable. For a morning departure, leaving Upper Hill three hours before the flight is comfortable; for an evening one, leave four and accept that you may be reading in the terminal.