What Affects Moving Costs in Nairobi

You will not find a price list on this page, and you should be suspicious of any moving company in Nairobi that gives you one. A studio moving three streets in Ruiru and a four-bedroom in Karen going to Kitengela are not the same job, and a single number cannot honestly cover both. We quote per move, and we survey anything bigger than a one-bedroom before we give you a figure — in person or over a video call.

What we can do is tell you exactly what we are looking at when we work out that figure. Once you know the eight levers, you can look at any quote and understand why it says what it says — and you can pull one or two of the levers yourself.

The eight things that move the price

1. Volume: how much you actually own

Volume decides the size of the truck, the number of trips, and how many crew hours the job eats. It is the biggest lever on your quote and the only one you can pull hard before the day.

Bedrooms are a rough proxy, not the truth. We have moved two-bedrooms with more in them than some four-bedrooms — a full store, a garage of tools, and years of things nobody looked at twice. What matters is what goes on the truck. Sell, give away or dispose of what you do not want, and do it three weeks out, not the night before. Every item that does not travel is money you keep.

Pushes it up: full stores and garages, a lot of freestanding furniture, appliances, more than one household combining.
Pushes it down: honest decluttering before the survey.

2. Distance: within Nairobi, or out of it

Distance costs fuel, and more importantly it costs time — the truck and the crew are committed for as long as the road takes. Moving within Ruiru, or from Kasarani to Roysambu, is a short run. Nairobi out to Kitengela or Syokimau is a longer one, and traffic on the Mombasa Road corridor at the wrong hour can add an hour of it. Nairobi to Mombasa, Nakuru or upcountry is a different category again: it is a full-day or multi-day commitment for a crew and a vehicle, which is why long-distance moves are quoted as their own thing.

Pushes it up: long runs, peak-hour departures, an origin and a destination on opposite sides of the city.
Pushes it down: a start time that dodges the worst traffic, and being realistic about the route.

3. Floors, stairs and lift access

This is the factor people forget to mention, and the one that most often makes a quote wrong. A ground-floor maisonette with a driveway is a fundamentally easier job than the same contents on the fifth floor of a block whose lift is out.

What we ask about, and what you should tell any mover up front:

• Which floor, at both ends.
• Is there a lift, does it work, and is it big enough for a fridge or a three-seater?
• Is there a service lift, and have you booked it with the caretaker? A booked service lift can halve the carry. An unbooked one on an end-of-month Saturday means queueing behind two other households.
• How many steps between the truck and the door — including the ones you have stopped noticing.

Pushes it up: high floors with no lift, narrow staircases, a lift too small for the furniture.
Pushes it down: a confirmed lift booking, and telling us the truth about the floor before the day.

4. Packing: who does it, and with what

Packing is materials plus hours. Both are real costs, and you can take on as much or as little of them as you want.

• You pack everything. Cheapest. We drop off boxes, tape, bubble wrap and labels ahead of time, and you work through the house at your own pace. The risk is yours: things packed badly break, and a box that bursts on the stairs costs more than the wrap would have.
• We pack the fragile things, you do the rest. The most common choice, and usually the sensible one. We handle the kitchen, glass, screens and mirrors. You do the clothes and the linen, which are hard to get wrong.
• We pack the whole house. Most expensive, fastest, and the one people with a full-time job and a Saturday deadline usually take. See packing services.

One thing that is never an optional extra with us: wrapping furniture is standard, not a line item. Sofas, mattresses and screens get covered before they leave the room, whoever packed the boxes.

5. Fragile and special items

Some things need more than a strong back. A piano, a gun safe, a large aquarium, a treadmill, a glass dining table, a wall-mounted TV that needs taking down properly, a fridge that will not fit through the door on its hinges. Each of these needs extra people, extra protection, sometimes extra equipment, and always extra time.

Tell us about them at the survey. Special items priced into a quote are a small adjustment; special items discovered on the day are a problem for everybody. If awkward, heavy single items are the whole job, that is what furniture moving is for.

Pushes it up: weight, size, fragility, anything that has to be dismantled or lifted over a balcony.
Pushes it down: declaring them early so the right crew and kit turn up first time.

6. Timing and demand

Leases in Nairobi turn over at month end, and everyone wants a Saturday. The last Saturday of the month is the busiest moving slot in the city by a wide margin — every competent crew in town is committed, and the ones that are not are usually the ones you do not want.

If you have flexibility, use it. A mid-month weekday is easier to staff, easier to route through traffic, and easier to price well. If you must move at month end, book early — the earlier you commit, the more likely you are to get a crew that is not already on its second job of the day.

7. Waiting time: the cost you can delete entirely

A crew that arrives on time and then stands still is the most wasteful thing in a move, and it is almost always avoidable. What makes crews wait in Nairobi:

• The gate. Gated estates want notice. Some want a written access permit from management, some want the plate number and the driver’s ID in advance, some will not admit a commercial vehicle without one. A truck parked outside a barrier is costing you.
• The security check. Guards inspecting the load in and out is normal, and it takes time. Some estates hold a gate pass that the caretaker must sign before anything leaves the compound. Know that in advance.
• The lift. Unbooked, or booked by someone else, or out of service.
• The keys. Waiting for a landlord or an agent to turn up with the keys to the new place, with a loaded truck outside, is a genuinely expensive way to spend a morning.
• Packing that is not finished. See above.

Every one of those is a phone call made two days earlier. Make the calls.

8. Truck access at both ends

The question is simple: how close can a truck actually get to the door? Narrow estate lanes, a compound gate too tight for a lorry, a security policy that keeps commercial vehicles at the perimeter, a road that is impassable after rain — any of these means everything gets carried further, by hand, one item at a time.

It is not a reason to charge you more out of spite; it is simply more work, and it needs to be in the quote rather than in an argument on the day. Tell us if the truck cannot reach the door. If a smaller vehicle can, we will plan for one.

What about a matatu or a pickup?

For a few boxes and a mattress, a pickup is a perfectly rational choice, and we will not pretend otherwise. Where it stops being cheap is the moment there is anything in the load that can break. An unwrapped mirror or a glass table on an open pickup, going over the potholes on any Nairobi back road, is a coin toss. Nothing is padded, nothing is strapped, the load shifts, and one bad section of tarmac costs you more than the whole job saved. If you have a household, hire a crew. If you have a sofa, look at furniture moving instead.

How we quote

We quote per move. For anything larger than a one-bedroom we survey first, in person or over a video call, because a number given without seeing the house is a guess — and a guess is what turns into a bigger bill on the day. What you get back is written, itemised, and it holds. The price we quote is the price you pay.

If you are comparing quotes right now, read how to choose a moving company next — it covers exactly what a suspiciously low quote is hiding. Or send us the details and get a real one.