Nairobi Guide for Digital Nomads

Weather in Nairobi by month

The warmest month is February, at about 84°F (29°C) in the afternoon, and the coolest is June, at about 77°F (25°C).

The most rain falls in April.

From NASA POWER's monthly climate averages for the point (a grid about 50 km across, so a coastal or mountain city can read a little off).

Internet in Nairobi

In M-Lab's open speed tests within 25 km of Nairobi, half came in above 12 Mbps download and 6 Mbps upload, and the fastest quarter of lines above 29 Mbps.

That's 6,912,082 download tests from September 2025 to September 2026.

The typical figure counts every line, cheap and mobile ones too; a fiber line in a good apartment or coworking space is closer to the fastest quarter.

Test yours when you get there with my internet speed test.

Cost of living in Nairobi

One person spends about $1,339 a month in Nairobi, with a furnished place to stay:

The rent is the lower quarter of Inside Airbnb's 45 studios and one-bedrooms that take stays of a month or more, from its June 2026 listings.

The rest is what a one-person US household spends (the Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2024 survey), at Kenya's prices for each (the World Bank's 2021 price comparison).

Coworking, insurance and flights come on top.

Here's what a furnished studio or one-bedroom lists for in the neighborhoods with the most month-long stays:

That's each listing's nightly price times 30, before any monthly discount a host gives, so a booked month often comes in lower.

Air quality in Nairobi

The air in Nairobi carries about 21 µg/m³ of fine particles (PM2.5) over a year, 4.2 times the WHO's guideline of 5 µg/m³.

The cleanest month is March, at about 12 µg/m³, and the haziest is May.

In May it climbs to about 48 µg/m³, so plan around it if you're sensitive to smoke or haze.

From the 2 low-cost sensors nearest Nairobi, within 14.7 km, through OpenAQ's open air quality data, each month's average since 2023: Nairobi (Clarity, CC0 1.0, 11.9 km); Kihumo Village || Antenna Array (The Demography Project, CC BY 4.0, 14.7 km).

Low-cost sensors read less precisely than government monitors, so take the figures as a guide.

Is Nairobi safe?

The US State Department rates Kenya Level 2 ("Exercise increased caution", updated 2026-07-28), the same level it gives France, Germany, the UK and Spain.

Levels 1 and 2 are both everyday travel; the US only asks you to reconsider a trip at Level 3.

Some advisories raise the level for parts of a country, so read the full advisory before you book.

Work and stay in Nairobi

Where to work and live with other remote workers, from each finder:

See them all on a map, with hours, photos and directions, in the coworking space finder and free Wi-Fi spots.

Visas, taxes and residency in Kenya

Before you plan a long stay, check what your passport allows and what staying does to your taxes:

• Can you stay? – see where your passport goes without a visa on the visa-free countries map, and whether Kenya has a visa for remote workers in the digital nomad visa finder
• Tax – compare Kenya's income tax with other countries in tax rates by country
• Foreign income – Kenya taxes only income earned inside the country, not income from abroad; see the rule and its exceptions on the territorial tax map

Each tool reads the official rules, so the answer is for your own passport and income.

Money in Nairobi

A card with no foreign fee and an account that holds several currencies make a stay much cheaper:

• Accounts – the best bank accounts for digital nomads, by where you live
• Cards – what a card costs you abroad in the card fees abroad calculator
• Sending money – the cheapest way to move money there in the money transfer comparison

The finders show only accounts and cards you can open from where you live.

Time zone

Nairobi runs on Nairobi time (Africa/Nairobi).

See how many working hours you'd share with your clients or team in the time zone overlap calculator.