Kenya

Two distinct questions, which current KRA pages answer inconsistently — in part within a single page — are kept separate here: declaration of goods to customs, and completion of the specific Passenger Declaration Form (F88). Declaration to customs — unresolved within-page contradiction: the live KRA knowledge base (https://www.kra.go.ke/component/knowledge_base/category/5) corrects the misconception “Only new items exceeding USD 2,000 must be declared” with the clarification “All items brought into Kenya from a foreign/partner state must be declared to customs (including currencies and monetary instruments of more than $10,000)”, and its Step 2 states “A passenger arriving is required to make a declaration to customs of all personal items brought with him/her from abroad”; yet immediately below, under Personal Items, the same page states “Used personal items and effects are exempt from customs duties and do not need to be declared”. The page thus contradicts itself on whether used personal effects must be declared to customs; both wordings are juxtaposed and neither is resolved. Form F88 trigger — cross-page conflict: the only form edition KRA still serves is the May-2018 print, which states it “MUST be completed by ALL passengers prior to arrival” and cites EACCMA 2004 Sections 44-46 and Fifth Schedule Part B Paragraph 5(4); the live Passenger Terminal FAQ likewise says “All passengers arriving into the country are supposed to make declarations using the prescribed Passenger Declaration Form (s) (Form F88)”; the knowledge base, however, ties the form to new goods: “Any new items with a value of up to USD 2,000 per traveler are exempt from import tax, provided they are declared to the Customs Officer. If the value exceeds this limit, the passenger must declare the items in the Passenger Declaration Form (F88) before arrival.” Official texts therefore conflict on whether F88 completion is universal (printed form; terminal FAQ) or conditional on new goods over USD 2,000 (knowledge base); no unconditional up-to-date F88 duty is asserted as established current law (see unresolved). The USD 2,000 figure is a tax concession, not by itself a declaration trigger: EAC Legal Notice EAC/427/2024 (Gazette of 31 December 2024; five-page official Gazette read in full via web reader, no local complete PDF) amended EACCMA Fifth Schedule Part B Paragraph 5(9) by substituting “five hundred” with “two thousand”; the terminal FAQ gives a “concession of USD. 2000 applicable only to goods for personal and/or household use”, the knowledge base “a concession of up to USD 2,000 on items bought for personal and/or household use”. Under the knowledge-base wording the exemption of new items up to USD 2,000 is conditional on their being declared to the Customs Officer, and F88 form completion attaches only above that limit; the tax exemption and any declaration or form duty are separate questions. Superseded USD 500 figures persist on the older Customs FAQ, the 02/11/2023 KRA public notice (which already flagged review to a higher limit), the goods checkbox of the printed form and a stale declare-item on the terminal FAQ itself; used personal effects are exempt from tax (knowledge base; terminal FAQ), subject to the declaration contradiction above. Section 45 EACCMA 2004 provides dual-channel clearance: Green Channel for passengers with nothing to declare carrying dutiable goods within the duty-free allowance (oral declaration / declaration on the Passenger Declaration, passenger Categories A & B); Red Channel for passengers carrying dutiable or restricted goods — all crew members use the Red Channel, and the printed form directs any “Yes” answer to the Red Channel counter. For passengers aged 18 or over — the 18+ qualifier attaches to these consumables allowances in source wording; no age condition is stated for the USD 2,000 concession itself — duty is not levied on: spirits (including liquors) or wine not exceeding one litre, or wine not exceeding two litres; perfume and toilet water not exceeding in all one-half litre, of which not more than a quarter may be perfume; cigarettes, cigars, cheroots, cigarillos, tobacco and snuff not exceeding 250 grammes in total. Currency: the terminal FAQ requires arriving passengers to declare “Currency of USD. 10,000 and above or its equivalent”; the knowledge base states cash “exceeding 10,000 USD or its equivalent MUST be declared at Customs on arrival or before departure”, while its misconception-clarification says “more than $10,000” — current official pages conflict at exactly USD 10,000, and the printed form’s “exceeding the equivalent of USD 10,000” checkbox is form print, not a current tax-allowance or legal cash comparator. Search-reader excerpts of FRC guidance and the POCAMLA Second Schedule (Kenya Law) suggest an inclusive threshold applying into and out of Kenya, but no complete official original of either text was captured, so the legal cash comparator and any departure-side form/medium remain unverified; the arrival Form F88 is not presumed to satisfy a departure-side report, and no separate cash-declaration procedure is asserted on this basis. Non- or mis-declaration contravenes Section 203 EACCMA 2004, with strict penal action and seizure/confiscation. Duty is assessed on the transaction value under the East African Community Common External Tariff 2022 and paid, after generation of an electronic payment slip, through appointed banks at the terminal, PDQ card machines or M-Pesa (paybill 222222).