Relocate Dog US to Kenya

I'm moving with my Lab mix from the US to Kenya in September. I was looking for any updated info on flying her to Nairobi. The quotes I've received from transport companies are absurdly expensive so if anyone has recently completed the paperwork and has advice, it would be appreciated.

Hello calen26,

Welcome to Expat.com :)

While waiting for members who have successfully relocated their pet to share their experience with you, I would suggest that you can go through the following thread:

- Moving from SA to Nairobi with pets

You may find the information provided in the responses to the original post to be useful for your own situation.

Good luck,

Diksha
Team Expat.com

Hi! We are also moving to Nairobi with our dog (14 months).
What have you found out about taking a dog with you? I'd love to chat about this if you are interested!

Caroline

Hi! From the US, the cheapest quote I received for transport for my 65lb dog was $3500. I will have to reach out to a local company myself to arrange the import permit. I haven't completed the move yet due to COVID. Happy to chat more!

@calen26
We are trying desperately to figure out a way to bring our large dog with us when we move to from the U.S. to Kenya this year, any information you have would be so helpful!
@calen26
Which service was this price quote from? I would like to call them as this is much cheaper than others I have seen!
We are moving to Nairobi from NYC this August with two dogs, any information on the transport and rules on bringing pets into Kenya would be much appreciated. Thank you!

@campbelllikesoup0505 Hi, did you get any information on the reallocation of your dog? I am also trying to find the information as we have two dogs to transfer from NYC...we understand it is not an easy process. Any info you could share in case you have advanced on this, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Jelena

Hello! My husband and I will be moving to Kenya this summer. We have a very small dog (7lb) who is quite skittish so we don't want to put him in the hold. We understand that Kenya does not allow dogs to fly into the country in cabin (even if the airline does).


Has anyone had any experience with taking their pet into Kenya in cabin? The only other thing we though about is to perhaps fly with him in the cabin to Uganda and then drive to Nairobi.


Any advice for our little guy would be so appreciated :)


Naureen

You are correct,  Kenya does not permit the import of pets as 'carry on'.  So you will only find people who have experience of bringing a dog as hold cargo. 


Pets must be 'manifest cargo' and can only be imported via Jomo Kenyatta International, so your idea of crossing a land border with your dog wont work.


You basically have two options:  leave your dog behind, or travel with your dog as cargo, unfortunately.

Has anyone on this thread since had success in getting their North American dog into Kenya? We face this currently and are trying to find an airline that will directly book him as cargo (I dislike that term). Or can someone recommend a shipping company?

@christopherhakes The best airlines for pet travel are Lufthansa and KLM. Good luck :-)

@naureenkarachiwalla thanks for the insight - the challenge as I understand it is that we don't work directly with the airline but instead with a freight company that then carries our dog. In any event, if we can crack this nut I'll be sure to update this forum with my learnings.