Ahh, the joy of African land border crossings. Cramped buses with no A/C or toilets, corrupt border patrol agents, and bus drivers with an insatiable need for speed, what more could you ask for? Although it can seem daunting, traveling by bus from Nairobi, Kenya to Kampala, Uganda is pretty straightforward. At least, it’s as straightforward as international bus travel in Africa will get. That’s all we can really ask for, right? Traveling by bus from Kenya to Uganda is much cheaper than a flight, and if you can sacrifice a little comfort for the better part of a day, I’d say it’s totally worth undergoing the journey.
Here’s everything you need to know about taking the bus from Nairobi to Kampala.
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Booking the Bus from Nairobi to Kampala
While a few different bus companies offer this route, I strongly recommend going with Mash Poa or Mash Cool. The second option supposedly has air conditioning, but I have my doubts. The other option is Coast. Many locals will advise you not to go with them due to their track record of road accidents. You’ll find that the Coast buses are usually empty with no need to book in advance, which is saying something when the Mash buses are almost fully booked several days in advance.
So yeah, you can risk it with Coast or play it safer with Mash. To book with Mash, you can either buy your ticket online with Mpesa, or book your ticket at the office and pay with cash or card. If you don’t have Mpesa, you can ask someone with Mpesa to book your ticket for you and just pay them the money. Otherwise, head to the nightmare known as Accra Road. If you’ve been traveling by land in Kenya, you’ve likely encountered this matatu and bus station street. As Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Luckily, Mash’s booking office is at the start of the street, so you don’t have to navigate the relentless hustlers and pickpockets to get there. I’d look at their website in advance to get the timetables and know which bus you want, as well as check availability. They also have a seating chart and some buses apparently have VIP or Business Class seats. The economy seats were 2400 Kenyan shillings, and the VIP ones were 3000 shillings. I paid a little extra for one of these to get more space and then got on the bus and all the seats were the exact same. I didn’t think there was any point asking for a refund. Karibu East Africa, baby.
The buses do leave on time, though, so get there about a half hour before. Make sure to account for Nairobi’s heavy traffic, especially if you’re taking a night bus and have to deal with the late evening clog of cars.
What You’ll Need For The Busia Border Crossing from Kenya to Uganda
About 10 hours or so into the ride, you will find yourself at the Busia border crossing. The bus driver made a stop in the middle of the night for bathrooms and snacks, but if you were asleep for this, now’s your chance to get your first potty break.
Crossing the border from Kenya to Uganda is simple enough, if you’ve got all your ducks in a row. Make sure to have the visa for Uganda, or the East African Tourist visa. I don’t think you can get these at the border. Apply for at least 5 days before your departure, although it typically takes 3 days to process. I got mine the same day I applied, so it definitely is up to chance. The normal Uganda-only visa is $50, while the East African Tourist visa is $100, but allows you entry into Rwanda and Kenya (again), as well.
Next up, you’ll need your yellow fever vaccine. It’s a lifetime vaccine, so if you’ve gotten it before, you’re good to go. You do need the physical yellow card, though. They do not accept photocopies. If you don’t have this vaccine, you can get it at Nairobi’s City Hall for about $20.
Other things that you might need are your ticket out of Uganda, your hotel booking and address, and potentially your itinerary. I uploaded all of these to the visa application website, so they didn’t actually ask for any of it, but it’s good to have them handy just in case.
Seems straightforward, right? Well, you’ll probably be the only foreigner on this bus, so be prepared for some tomfoolery at the border. Or maybe you’ll be lucky, and I was just unlucky. Anyway, I had to pay a couple of bribes and border patrol wouldn’t even stamp me in unless I “bought him breakfast.” I figured if I didn’t say anything, he’d eventually stamp me in, but I got withheld twice already and I was scared the bus was going to leave without me.
Yeah, so that set me back about $160 USD. You can’t bring e-cigarettes into the country, which I tried throwing away but they picked it out of the trash and grabbed me and put me in a dark room for about twenty minutes until I paid them off.
Also, double-check how long you are allowed to stay in Kenya. Most people get 90 days. For some reason, immigration only gave me one month. I stayed for five weeks and had to pay the guy stamping me out $100, otherwise he said I would have to go back to Nairobi and fly to the United States. It was 6 AM, I had just woken up, I could not fact-check anything because I didn’t have service, so yeah, I had to take his word for it. Honestly, if he was telling the truth, which I think he was, I was lucky to have chosen such a corrupt border crossing to fix what could otherwise been a big problem for me.
Anyway, I hope your border crossing goes much more smoothly than mine. Expect to stay here for about an hour, maybe longer depending on how everyone else is faring with immigration.
On To Uganda!
From the border, it’s about five more hours to Kampala. I decided to hop off a few hours early in the town of Jinja, and I’m grateful I did. I don’t know if I could have taken any more chaos that day, so nestling into my quiet hostel by Lake Victoria was definitely the way to go.
If you’re continuing to Kampala, you’ll have to take a motorcycle taxi or an Uber to your accommodation. You should be in town by the early afternoon at the latest, so you’ve got plenty of time to settle in or get some post-bus rest. Don’t worry, the rest of Kampala isn’t as chaotic as where you’ve just arrived to.
Congratulations, you’ve completed the journey from Nairobi to Kampala. All things considered, it is not the worst journey in the world, and if you’re prepared for it, it will go fairly smoothly. It is much cheaper than a flight, so if you can endure a little chaos, I’d say it was totally worth it, even if I did end up having to shell an extra $160 along the way.
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