Kenya

Nairobi hosts the only UN Secretariat headquarters in the Global South. UNON in Gigiri employs more than 4,000 personnel across 88 UN offices; almost 6,000 UN staff in Kenya bring roughly 10,000 dependents. A USD 340 million expansion launched in May 2026 will make Nairobi the third-largest UN duty station after New York and Geneva — a multi-year pipeline of school-age arrivals into exactly two neighbourhoods: Gigiri/Runda and Karen. ↗ ↗

Around that anchor sits a mature school sector. Kenya’s international schools grew up with the settler and diplomatic communities — Hillcrest since 1965, Turi since 1931, the Braeburn group since 1979 — and the group structure is regional: Braeburn alone runs ten schools including campuses in Mombasa, Nanyuki, Kisumu and two in Tanzania. There is no inspection-ratings regime, so accreditation (BSO/ISI, CIS, COBIS, IAPS) does the work a KHDA-style scoreboard does elsewhere. ↗

The national system is mid-transition. Kenya’s 8-4-4 structure is being replaced by Competency-Based Education — renamed from CBC in April 2025. The first CBE cohort entered Senior Secondary (Grade 10) in 2026; the first KJSEA was sat in October 2025; the last KCSE runs in 2027. Expat families mostly route around this via British, IB and North American curricula — but the transition matters for mixed families, local hires and anyone comparing Kenyan-curriculum private schools. ↗

• International School of Kenya (2026/27, per an August 2026 press round-up; the official page is JavaScript-gated): USD 30,800 (Kindergarten) to USD 37,330 (Grades 11-12), plus a one-time non-refundable Capital Levy of USD 11,000, a USD 400 application fee and USD 2,200 optional bus — a first year that can clear USD 50,000. The trajectory tells the story: in 2017-18 the range was USD 15,163-29,072 with a USD 1,250 annual levy. ↗
• Braeburn Garden Estate (2025/26, verified-badge aggregator): KSh 928,800 (Nursery) to KSh 2,576,000 (Year 12), with sibling discounts of 10-40 per cent and BSO/ISI, CIS, COBIS and IAPS credentials — the accredited mid-premium benchmark. ↗
• Brookhouse (Karen and Runda): up to KSh 2.88M day tuition (Year 13); boarding to KSh 4.55M, Karen campus only. ↗
• St Andrew’s, Turi: roughly KSh 2.5M (early years) to KSh 3.9M (senior full boarders) — confirm the term-vs-annual basis directly; sources conflict. ↗

Read fee terms like a contract lawyer. Braeburn Mombasa’s published terms are a fair sample of regional practice: fees billed in three tranches (August, December, April), a full term’s written notice required for withdrawal or a term’s fees in lieu, the right to alter fees at five months’ notice, and 1.25 per cent per month on late payment. None of this is unusual in Kenya — all of it surprises families arriving from regulated fee markets. ↗

Accreditation is the verification route. With no published inspection data, the documents to ask for are the BSO/ISI inspection report (British schools), CIS accreditation, COBIS compliance and AISA membership. Schools that hold several — Turi, Braeburn Garden Estate, ISK — publish them prominently; schools that hold none deserve a longer tour and harder questions.

Non-residents may be billed differently. At Turi, Kenyan residents pay in KSh while non-residents pay in USD — a common pattern at boarding schools serving the region. Confirm which fee sheet applies to your family before comparing schools.

Braeburn Mombasa International School anchors the coast’s British track: 2026/27 day fees of KSh 376,800-2,209,200 (school listing), COBIS/CIS/IAPS credentials and BSO inspection, with 2025 A-level/BTEC results at 27 per cent A*/A per the Good Schools Guide. Sibling discounts run 10-40 per cent. ↗ ↗

The Aga Khan Academy Mombasa is the IB alternative — the first school in the Aga Khan Academies network, a full IB continuum of about 656 students with boarding for 160. Day fees were listed at KSh 580,000-1,725,000 for 2025/26 (USD 4,200-13,000 per OpenApply; boarding USD 18,000-25,000). Light International School (KSh 270,000-846,000) covers the value tier, while The Mombasa Academy (founded 1978) and Jaffery Academy do not publish fees. Coast fees price meaningfully below Nairobi’s premium tier. ↗ ↗

Upcountry, boarding is the tradition. Turi (Molo, 2,500m altitude, founded 1931) serves families across East Africa from a 350+ acre estate; Greensteds (Nakuru) and Braeburn Nanyuki round out the upcountry options covered in our Nairobi guide.

Every figure above traces to our research dossier. Primary sources: the United Nations on UNON, Braeburn Mombasa’s official fee terms, verified-badge aggregator fee pages, an August 2026 Kenyan press fee round-up, and Good Schools Guide reviews. Where a school gates its fees behind JavaScript (ISK) or publishes nothing, we say so and grade accordingly.

Fees and policies expire. This page was researched on 2 September 2026 and is re-verified each academic year — see our research standard, browse the school directory as profiles open, and use corrections if you spot something stale.