Traveling by road from Ethiopia to Nairobi

Plenty of threads on this if you do a search.

There is a bus called the Moyale Roha that goes directly from Moyale to Nairobi for 30,000 KSh. It took about 23 hours. THe other option is to go on the back of trucks and stop in Marsabit and Isiolo on the way down, which takes about 3 days.

They were upgading the road last year when I did this journey, so it might be a bit quicker now.

jonzy85:

You mean 3,000 shillings not 30,000, right? That is about US$35.

Sorry, yes 3,000!!

I was in Nairobi early 2011 and the general consensus was that overland travel between Kenya and Ethiopia was impossible. At least from Kenya - Ethiopia, visas were not issued unless you were going by air. (note: this is what I heard)

What exactly has changed? Has the security situation improved at the border? Or were the rumours I heard just plain old rumours?! :)

Edited by: overblood

A few points should be made here:

This person is traveling south and visas can be bought at the Kenyan border. So there is no reason to consider this trip "impossible". Many people have done it without incident. Going the other way, you need to obtain your Ethiopian visa in advance as they are not issued at the border. However, the Ethiopian embassy in Nairobi is apparently no longer serving non-Kenyans (unless this situation changed recently). So foreigners planning to travel north from Nairobi to Addis would need to buy their Ethiopian visa in their home country, or any country where an Ethiopian embassy will serve them.

It seems like someone had a bad time in Isiolo, but apart from a few rare episodes of unrest that have led to highway closures near the town, Isiolo is really no worse than any other Kenyan town. And you cannot simply avoid it because it lies right on the highway you are traveling.

Re weather, good forecasts are unfortunately difficult to obtain for northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. Forecasts are issued only for big towns and up there, you can be hundreds of km from the nearest town. The rains, when they come, tend to be spotty and difficult to forecast. It can be bone dry in one district while areas 20 km away are flooded. So if you try to base your itinerary on a forecast on the web, you could be wasting productive travel time!

deleted

I am planning to overland this way as well. Heard a story about banditry, but it was 3rd hand and could have been 3 week or 3 years old, the teller didnt know.
I take it from comments on this thread that there is no reason to double back to addis and fly? secuirty between moyale and marsabit is no issue, is it?
Thanks.

This question comes up a lot. In regards to security on the road the simple answer is that nobody really knows. I have travelled this route (and throughout north Kenya/south ethiopia) many times and have never had an issue. I have travelled in a mix of trucks, buses and private cars. i will be again travelling in north Kenya next month and have no reason currently to be worried about security. But, I might have been lucky, because incidents do occur on this road from time to time. Late last year (or maybe it was earlier this year I don't remember) there was serious fighting right up to and in Moyale (Ethiopian side) and it would have been impossible to make this journey then. Also last year (or maybe the year before!) the road between Isiolo and Marsabit was blocked by fighting. It all really depends on the day and nobody on this forum can really answer the question for you because the situation changes on a day to day basis - you just need to play it by ear. When trouble flares up it normally only lasts a few days. The drivers of transport etc in Moyale and other towns will know the absolute latest and you should listen to their advice. That said most of the time there are no problems with security on this route and north Kenya itself is one of the best adventures in Africa.

Good luck and enjoy.