Sounds complicated: "I got this from a Facebook post on a Nairobi ex-pat group. Ksh500 is about £4, but that means much more there than here...The very lowest paid jobs can be Ksh5,000 per month. 'Mzungu' means foreign white person. 　 　 Getting a driver's license in Kenya - I recently posted a question about this - now I have my answer for having gone through it - for anyone else interested, here's how it went down. Tuesday - went to AA Kenya Sarit Centre and tell them I want a driver's license. Paid 600 KES for the learner's license and then 580 for them to book my government test. Since I didn't want to go through classes, also paid 4,500 KES for them to immediately assess me as ready for the test. Went into a little room and a guy pointed to a bunch of road signs on the wall which I needed to say what they were. There was also a little model town on a table with toy cars and I was asked to drive the toy cars from point A to point B, usually involving some navigation of a roundabout. Then went out into a car and with the instructor, drove it once around the roads around Sarit Center. Manual car, so don't bother if you don't know how to drive manual. Wednesday - picked up the results of my assessment. Indicated I did "Good" on the actual driving test, and "Poor" on the theory. It was recommended that I take 5 hours of theory classes before taking the government test. Each class is 500KES. I negotiated this down to give me 1.5 hours of classes on the model and roundabouts and .5 hours of classes on road signs and I'll be good. Thursday - took my first hour of theory class, with about 5 others driving toy cars around roundabouts trying to figure out the brain teasers that the instructor was giving of every completely non-practical scenario and how to deal with it. Friday - took another hour of class on the signs and a little more on the model town. Afterwards instructor highly recommended that I do another hour of class in order to be ready. I declined and said I would be fine. They gave me a bunch of papers and said to show up at Karen police station on Tuesday morning at 8AM with two passport photos and my passport. Tuesday - Pitch up at 7:30 AM, there's about 5 others there. 9:30 AM - About 50 others there, nothing happening. It's cold and we're all outside. Glad its not raining 9:45 AM - AA guy rounds everyone up and makes sure we've all got our forms in order. Of course mine are not, but eventually they fix me up 10:00 AM - Big police man comes out, gathers everyone around, gives a speech in Swahili, which I don't speak, and then tells everyone to line up to register 10:45 AM - Everyone is registered and they start bringing in people for the theory test 11:30 AM - My turn for the theory test. Guy asks me to identify two signs. Then is fascinated because I'm wearing a camelback backpack and wants to know what the tube that hangs out is. Then asks me if I'm a mzungu and argues with me that the name "Shah" cannot come from the US. Then tells me to move a car on the model board to do a left turn, and then says I'm done. 12:00 PM - After everyone has completed their theory test, they pack up all the people that are there for truck licenses onto the back of a truck and drive them away. There are about 25 of us left. 12:15 PM- Policeman points to me first and brings me to the car. I get in, start to put on my seat belt, and he says no need, but that he has noted that it was my intention to obey the laws of Kenya. Tells me to start the car and to drive. I drive MAYBE 1/2 meter, and he tells me to stop and turn off the car and to get out. This happens for the next 24 people as well, though surprisingly many of them had trouble with even that much. Lots of struggles with the clutch. 1:00 PM - We are handed the results of our tests - I'm proud to say I passed this most vigorous of tests. We all then gather in a section while a motherly lady describes in detail how to fill out our KRA forms for the license application. We all do this together with her, though I need extra help because I am using a passport instead of local ID and because I didn't understand anything she was saying. She helps me and then makes someone move for me to sit towards the front on the bench, to wait to submit the forms. 1:35 PM- Police man comes out of the room, looks at all of us, says "mzungu - you go" and then pulls about 10 more people and we all enter the room. Someone takes the forms, puts a bunch of stamps on them, staples my photos, and then hands them back to me and says to submit to KRA or back to my driving school 1:45 PM - 6 hours and 15 minutes after arrival, I am done 4:00 PM - I give my forms to AA back at Sarit, pay them 700 KES, and they say I can pick up my temporary license in two days and then 3 months later abouts my permanent license will come It was really not a fun day, and it was somewhat ridiculous really, especially the driving tests, but glad its done, no explicit bribes paid and looks like I'll be legally driving again in two days. If you have a valid international license, you can evidently just have them convert it to a Kenyan license without all of this. Wish I had done that before mine expired. 　
