CCTV installation cost in Kenya (2026): cameras, recorders and labour

The question we are asked most about CCTV is the price, and the honest answer is a range with a method behind it. This guide uses the prices listed in our own shop on 6 October 2026 and the same arithmetic our online quotation uses, so every figure below can be checked and rebuilt for your own premises.

How much does a CCTV camera cost in Kenya?

Cameras in our shop run from KES 2,000 to KES 12,000 each for ordinary installations, and higher for specialist units:

• Wi-Fi bulb and pan-tilt home cameras: KES 2,000 to KES 4,500
• 2MP outdoor bullet and turret network cameras (TP-Link VIGI EasyCam): KES 2,500 to KES 2,700
• 3MP and 4MP full-colour dome and turret cameras: KES 3,500 to KES 4,000
• 4MP outdoor pan-tilt cameras: KES 7,500 to KES 8,000
• 4G pan-tilt camera for sites without fixed internet: KES 12,000

Resolution matters less than people think. What decides whether a camera is useful is whether it can identify a face or a number plate at the distance it is mounted, which is a placement question before it is a megapixel one.

What does the recorder cost?

Every system needs a recorder and a drive. Recorders in our shop start at KES 7,500, four-channel recorders that power the cameras over the network cable (PoE) are KES 11,500 to KES 11,599, and an eight-channel unit is KES 14,599. Surveillance hard drives are KES 7,899 for 1 TB and KES 10,000 for 2 TB.

A four-camera system, line by line

• 4 outdoor 2MP bullet cameras at KES 2,500KES 10,000
• 4-channel PoE recorderKES 11,500
• 1 TB surveillance driveKES 7,899
• EquipmentKES 29,399
• Labour at 30% of equipmentKES 8,820
• VAT at 16%KES 6,115
• TotalKES 44,334

An eight-camera system

The same cameras eight times, an eight-channel recorder and a 2 TB drive come to KES 44,599 in equipment, KES 13,380 labour and KES 9,277 VAT: KES 67,255 in all. Check whether the recorder you choose powers the cameras itself; where it does not, a PoE switch is added and the survey sizes it.

What these figures leave out

Cable, conduit and mounting depend on distances nobody can know without walking the site, so they are measured at the site survey and added as their own lines. A bungalow with the recorder in the hall needs a few metres per camera; a warehouse with cameras on the perimeter wall can need more cable than cameras by value.

How much storage do you need?

A 2MP camera recording continuously with H.265 compression at about 2 Mbps writes roughly 20 GB a day, so four of them fill a 1 TB drive in about ten days. Recording on motion only stretches that a long way; H.264 at a higher bitrate shortens it. If you must be able to look back a month, plan for 2 TB or more. Our article on how many days of footage you actually need covers the trade-off in detail.

Getting a figure for your own premises

Our quotation builder on this site prices any combination of shop items with the same labour and VAT rules used above, and gives you a numbered quotation you can quote back to us. The site survey that confirms cable runs and camera positions comes before you commit to anything.