Suam | Customs and Immigration

Uganda to Kenya with East Africa Visa and Carnet

Very easy and smooth border. At the moment it's all improvised as the new buildings are not yet finished. But it's no problem as there are friendly people to help you. First Uganda side Immigration and then customs and health check. They wanted to see the receipt of the road tax you paid when entering.

Thank cross the bridge and go to Kenya side. Immigration is no problem with the east Africa visa, no ETA needed in that case. Customs very friendly aswell, stamped the carnet and had to pay 20USD in Cash for the road tax (bigger cars pay 40 USD), the free transit is only available for Comesa registered cars. If you pay it in KSH, it's little cheaper.

As soon as both buildings on both sides are finished, it's going to be a One stop border.

The roads on both sides are excellent tar, on the Kenya side are some constructions going on. Just follow the locals for the detours.

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Uganda to Kenya
very easy, everybody friendly and welcoming.
Uganda: everything under construction, so might change soon again. Drive to the big roundabout 200m before the bridge and drive through the big gate towards the orange building which is the closest to the roundabout. There is immigration. They will guide you to one floor upstairs for customs to stamp out CdP. Customs asked us if we had alcohol with us.
Kenya: drive past the big building until you're almost at the exit gate. Go to the building on your left. Down in the building is health (show your yellow fever certificate) and immigration. We have the EA Visa and they asked us how many months we would like to stay (filled in 2 months). Upstairs is customs. they stamp the CdP and you pay 1 month road tax. We paid in 40US$ cash. Not sure if you can pay with card.
Took us 45 minutes. We found only 1 guy to change money outside.

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Huge construction works and this border post is going to be big in a couple of months! No signs where to go but friendly locals and officials helping to get to the right buildings and offices. It took me 1h to get through and it was very smooth.

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This border post are not yet equipped to print the visa in your passport. You have the option of paying $50 to get a visa only for Uganda in arrival. We however already got our e-visas and had to go to Mbale border to print the visa in our passport

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Coming from Uganda, entering Kenya.

UGANDA: Make sure to go to the white house with the blue roof, before crossing the border (no clear signage). Both immigration and customs are here, and health at the back. Took us 15 minutes.

KENYA: Pass the bridge and you’ll find the building on the left (not the first big one on the right), just before the police check. Immigration is downstairs, customs upstairs. Paid 40 USD for traffic motor vehicle fees (for cars above 2000 cc, for below 2000 cc it is 20 USD) for one month. Took us about 20 minutes.

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Easy and friendly boarder.
Roadtax for 1 Month: 40$ for 3 Months:100$
Kenya E-Visa works without any problems. Check the stamp, that they gave you 3 months and not just 2.

CDP acceptet aswell. they know how to handle it.

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The road to get here is now 99% tared.
Very beautiful road.

The border still in construction.
It will be a big border in the near futur.

For now it's easy and quick. No check of the car. No scan.

French Passeport. Uganda to Kenya.
We have the EAC so nothing to pay.
Carnet stamped at the custom office.

Very nice officer in Kenya side. So efficient takes less than 10 minutes.

They did not check the car.

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One stop border is still being built. Relatively fast crossing. Road on Ugandan side to Suam is tarred upto Bukwa. From there wide gravel road still waiting to be finished.

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Crossing from kenya into Uganda. The easiest and fastest border crossing ever. All in all less than 15 minutes.
I was on my motorbike. As well as Kenyan as Ugandan side they new how to stamp it.

At the moment it a construction zone, in the near future probably a nice crossing. Nobody ask me for insurance or to pay road tax. When leaving Uganda for Rwanda they asked for the road tax receipt. After explaining nobody told me to pay tax it was fine. But that can be different at other borders.

You need to buy insurance somewhere else (I simply forgot when I was in Mbale and did not buy it at all)

The road to Sipi falls is still under construction but okay. When finished it will be an amazing road. Highly recommended when on a motorbike

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Below information is correct. Just want to add that they can't process the E-visa here. So they wanted to give us a week of entry to go to another border and fix it there. We didnt wanted that, so after a discussion he eventually agreed to give us a stamp for longer. Though he said this isn't quite official because we dont have the actual visa in our passports. Other travellers checked this at immigration in Kampala and they said it was fine to drive with the evisa combined with your passport. But I think untill they are able to process Evisa here (they are building a one stop border). I think it is better to do visa on arrival if you are crossing this specific border.

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Crossed from Kenya into Uganda. No hassle, no queues and efficient stamping of passport/CDP out of Kenya. Similar stamping into Uganda. Note that now customs are charging road tax for vehicles at a minimum of 3 months (60usd). Currently you cannot buy just one month (20usd). Confirmed this with another Overlander who crossed the boarder recently.

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we came from Uganda side and had mostly tar road and the last few kilometers are nearly finished but very good gravel road as well. from Sipi Falls it took as about 2 hours to the boarder. also on kenya side everything was tar road. we had our east africa visa and some cash for the road tax (40 usd or about 5000 ksh) and so it was the easiest boarder ever. it took us less than one hour to cross.

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Nrw border post not finished yet, crossed here to Uganda, easy and no hassle.
Road to Sipi falls if half done, the sipi half is excellent road.

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We crossed from Uganda to Kenya. As said before, easy crossing. Took us 1 hour and everyone was very friendly and helpful. No PCR needed if you are fully vaccinated. They will ask for you PCR, but when you can show proof of vaccination it’s not needed (on both sides).

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Don’t come here with an e-Visa. They still have no „machine“ to do it. They wanted us to pay the 50$ again to proceed the visa on arrival. At the end it worked with some phone calls to the boss. But it would have been easier with a visa on arrival.
All other things went smoothly and really friendly.

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We did Kenya to Uganda. Relatively quick and easy border post, 1.5 hours in total. Both sides wanted to see PCR test (which we had on phone). Uganda visa on arrival $50 pp. Road tax Uganda is 70000UGX, we found someone who accepted our $20 bill and paid via phone. It's a construction side still and the first 40km in Uganda is sand road, workers everywhere and max speed 20 km/u. Views make up for a lot though!

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It was really really easy to cross the border (with bicycles) ! They checked pcr test between the 2 offices.
The road from Uganda is 40km of dust and gravel road. We have a printing office in Bukwa.
The Kenya 's road is so so to Kitalé, asphalt and dust and gravel road.

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Easy crossing Kenya to Uganda with motorcycle and Carnet. No fees paid on either side. $50 for Uganda visa on arrival. For some reason on each side they say Covid yest must be done within 14days. I was able to cross with 10day old test. Petrol can be purchased on Uganda side with Kenyan shilling. Road to Suam border is under construction, will all be tar within a year or 2. Very easy with motorcycle, car will take a bit longer.

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Borderpost Kenya -> Uganda very friendly. No insurance available here, get one in Mbale. Took us less then one hour for both sides.

Warning: the road is bad! We did it because luckily no rain otherwise we couldnt pass it! We drive a 4x4. Its rough, not a real road for about 50km. Took us 5 hours to get to Kapchowa (75km total), only because the last 20km is better. I think its better with a bike as you see various boda boda driving up and down. But look out when it rains, mud very slippery, a lot of rocks and some deep tracks made by a heavy traktor.

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This is the correct location of the border crossing at Suam. All previous posts are correct, the crossing was quick and easy on both sides with friendly and efficient officers. However, the road on either side is nearly impassable in the rainy season. I had to spend the night at the border post to wait for the road to dry, and even then I dropped the bike twice. Avoid if it has been raining at all. On the positive, the guys on the Kenyan side were very welcoming and friendly and even invited me to eat with them.

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Note - GPS coordinates incorrect.

Tiny border post with Uganda. Great if you want to avoid busier borders. We were stamped out of Ethiopia at Omorate and were told that we had to go to Eldoret, but this border WILL stamp you in and out of Kenya so it saves time if you don’t want to drive to Eldoret. They don’t give the East African visa though. You can only get a Kenya visa for 50USD pp. Friendly and efficient. Took about an hour. NOTE: the road into Uganda at this border is ROUGH. Not a road to take if you’re trying to make time.

Uganda side also quick and efficient visa for 50USD pp. Got a TIP at customs for 20USD. Money changed informally if you want.

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This place is in wrong location - it is located at 1.28473, 34.75424

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My foreign vehicle tax was not checked here exiting Kenya (I’m on a motorcycle).
At the Ugandan side, cars have to pay tax, motorcycles don’t.

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There are small stations on both sides of the border. They can both stamp your carnet. The Kenyan office has a computer system. However, they will check whether you paid your foreign vehicle tax before leaving Kenya by checking your copy of invoices paid. If you haven't paid for your whole stay you will be fined. This is negotiable between 1 and 2000 USD. I negotiated to pay an extra month for the month I was missing (so paid 2x$40). When I was there no one could change USD for Ugandan Shillings; the first opportunity was Kapchorwa.

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