Kenya has made travel health insurance compulsory, and it is bought inside the eTA
What happened
On 9 October 2026 the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated its Kenya travel advice with new information about a requirement that took effect a few days earlier. From 5 October 2026, travellers applying for a Kenyan electronic travel authorisation must buy travel health insurance as part of that application. The requirement applies to foreign visitors staying in Kenya for less than 12 months. The FCDO advice page does not state a cost. The insurance is bought during the eTA application itself, at etakenya.go.ke. The FCDO gives [email protected] as the address for enquiries. It is worth setting out the rest of the entry picture, because the eTA itself trips people up. You must apply online for an eTA before you travel. The Kenyan authorities recommend applying at least two weeks before you depart. If you already hold a Kenyan visa, you can keep travelling on it until it expires. On vaccinations, you need a certificate proving yellow fever vaccination if you are arriving from a country listed as a yellow fever transmission risk. For full medical entry requirements and recommended vaccinations, the FCDO points travellers to TravelHealthPro's Kenya guide. The FCDO also repeats its standard advice, which is now doubly relevant: make sure you have travel insurance that covers your individual needs.
Why this matters
Kenya is one of the most popular long-haul destinations for British travellers, for safaris, for the coast, for business and to visit family. A change to how you enter affects a lot of trips. Mandatory health insurance sold inside a government application is becoming more common around the world. The logic from the host country's point of view is simple. If a visitor needs hospital treatment and cannot pay, somebody has to. But there is a real trap in it, and it is worth naming clearly. The insurance you buy through the eTA portal is not the same thing as a proper UK travel insurance policy. It is there to satisfy an entry requirement. It is not safe to assume it will cover cancellation, lost baggage, your existing medical conditions, adventure activities, or medical repatriation back to the UK. Repatriation is the big one. Flying an unwell person home from East Africa, sometimes with medical staff on board, is the single most expensive thing that can happen on a holiday. A basic entry-requirement policy is unlikely to stretch that far. So the honest reading of this change is: you now have to buy one thing, and you should still buy the other.
What the evidence actually says
A few points where it pays to be precise. The FCDO page does not publish a price for the mandatory insurance, so be wary of any figure you see quoted elsewhere. Check the cost on the official eTA portal at the point of application. The requirement as described applies to people applying for an eTA and staying under 12 months. If you already hold a valid Kenyan visa, the FCDO says you can continue to travel on it until it expires. If you are unsure which applies to you, ask through the official enquiry address rather than guessing. The two-week recommendation for applying is the Kenyan authorities' recommendation, not a guarantee of processing time. Leave more room than that if you can, particularly around school holidays. On yellow fever, the requirement is conditional. You need the certificate if you are arriving from a country on the transmission risk list. That can include a country you merely transited through, depending on the length of the stop, which catches people out on multi-leg itineraries. Finally, entry rules are set by Kenya and can change without much notice. The FCDO advice reflects what it has been told. Always check the official Kenyan portal close to departure as well as the FCDO page.
Qurexa perspective
The part of this we see go wrong most often has nothing to do with insurance. It is medicines. A trip to Kenya is usually booked months ahead, and then the medicines are thought about in the last week. That is the wrong way round, and it causes real problems. If you take regular prescription medication, order your repeat prescription in good time, not the day before you fly. Work out how many days you will be away, add a week on top in case of delays, and check whether that takes you past the quantity your prescription normally allows. If it does, you need to talk to your GP practice or pharmacist in advance, because a longer supply is a decision they have to make and record. Keep medicines in their original labelled packaging, carry them in your hand luggage rather than the hold, and take a copy of your prescription or a letter from your GP, especially for anything controlled, injectable or needing refrigeration. Some medicines that are routine in the UK are restricted elsewhere, so it is worth checking before you pack. Travel vaccinations and malaria tablets also need lead time. Some courses have to be started weeks before departure. Your pharmacist or a travel clinic can tell you what you need and when to start. This is the sort of thing our delivery and adherence service is actually for: making sure the medicine arrives before you need it rather than after. But you do not need us to do it. You just need to start earlier than feels necessary.
Practical advice
A checklist for a Kenya trip, in the order you should do it. Apply for your eTA early at etakenya.go.ke, the official portal. Allow more than the recommended two weeks. Be careful with search results: unofficial sites charge extra to fill in the same form. Buy the mandatory health insurance as part of that application, and keep the confirmation. Then buy a proper UK travel insurance policy separately. Declare every pre-existing medical condition, even ones you think are minor or well controlled. Check the policy includes medical repatriation, and check the cover limits rather than just the headline price. Check yellow fever. If you are arriving from or transiting a country on the transmission risk list, you need the certificate. Check TravelHealthPro and NHS Fit for Travel for Kenya's full vaccination and malaria recommendations. Sort your medicines six to eight weeks out. Repeat prescriptions, enough for the trip plus a buffer, original packaging, hand luggage, copy of the prescription. Sign up for FCDO email alerts on the Kenya advice page so you hear about any further changes before you fly. And take photographs of your passport, eTA, insurance documents and prescription, and store them somewhere you can reach without your phone.
What to know
Since 5 October 2026, visitors applying for a Kenyan eTA must buy travel health insurance as part of the application. It applies to foreign visitors staying less than 12 months, and the FCDO added this information to its Kenya advice on 9 October 2026. The insurance is bought through the official portal at etakenya.go.ke. The FCDO does not publish the cost, so check it there. Do not treat it as a substitute for proper UK travel insurance. It is an entry requirement, and is unlikely to cover cancellation, pre-existing conditions or medical repatriation. You still need to apply for the eTA before travelling, at least two weeks ahead on Kenya's recommendation, and you still need a yellow fever certificate if arriving from a transmission risk country. Sources: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, 'Kenya travel advice', updated 9 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/kenya; FCDO, 'Kenya travel advice: Entry requirements', updated 9 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/kenya/entry-requirements; FCDO, 'Foreign travel advice', accessed 10 October 2026, https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice This article is for general information and does not replace advice from a doctor, pharmacist or other qualified healthcare professional, or the latest official travel advice before you travel.
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