Hi Seppo,

Interesting idea! I'm sure you can make it work. I think your worst case scenario is having to ride the bike to Tanzania or Uganda on 4 separate occaisions. You'll need at least 3 days for each return journey from Mombasa to Tanzania. Customs clearance at a land border will be far more straight forward than getting the bike out of Mombasa Port and you are less likely to have any time limit imposed. Kenya Port Authority are trying to improve their procedures but it still took my agent a whole day to get it out and he had 20 years experiance working there. Maybe your employer can have the bike cleared for you as equipment required for the project... That will save you some cash in agents fees. KPA no longer permit you to clear the bike yourself according to notices I saw in the customs office at the port.

Road tax needs to be obtained within one week of clearing the bike through customs and you get that fron Nyayo House in Nairobi. That took me about 3 hours but can take anything from 20 minutes to a whole day and you need to show your carnet and certificate of insurance. This is a purely paper exercise and you don't need to take the bike there to do it. I don't know if you can get road tax for a foreign vehicle in Mombasa.

Good luck and do get yourself a trail bike while you're there. You will have a lot of fun!

Stephan