Generator specialists · Nairobi
Generators in Kenya, priced honestly and sized properly
Repair, servicing, installation and spare parts for diesel and petrol generating sets across 28 areas of Nairobi. We publish real Kenyan prices, we size from the load that actually starts, and we tell you when a repair is not worth doing.
- Areas
- 28
- Hours
- 24/7
- Based in
- Westlands
The thing nobody tells first-time buyers
Between 12kVA and 20kVA the price roughly quadruples
Between 12 kVA and 20 kVA the price roughly quadruples. That is not a shortage of stock in between: it is the point where the market changes from imported budget-brand sets to genuine industrial plant with a dealer network and parts availability. If your load sits near that boundary it is worth sizing carefully, because crossing it is the single most expensive decision in a generator purchase.
See all three price tablesWhat we do
Four things, and diagnosis always before parts. The symptom of a failed voltage regulator and a failed alternator are identical, and one costs many times the other.
- Generator Repair Diagnosis and repair of diesel and petrol generating sets across Nairobi, from a set that cranks but will not start to one that runs but produces no usable output.
- Generator Servicing & Maintenance Scheduled servicing for diesel and petrol sets, planned on running hours rather than the calendar, with a load test so the set is proved rather than assumed.
- Generator Installation Siting, mounting, exhaust, ventilation and changeover for new and replacement sets, designed around the NEMA boundary noise limit and the loads that genuinely need to stay on.
Why generator jobs go wrong in Nairobi
Six failures we attend over and over. None of them are exotic and all of them are cheaper to prevent than to fix.
01
Sized from the electricity bill
Consumption tells you what was used over a month. It says nothing about the instant a submersible borehole pump or a compressor starts and demands six to eight times its running current. A set chosen on units dips its voltage on every start, and the dip drops contactors across the installation. The symptom looks like a fault; the cause is arithmetic done on the wrong number.
02
Standby fuel nobody changed
A standby set holds the same diesel for months. Water settles out, microbial growth develops, the filter blocks. On the day of a real outage the set starts normally, runs for two minutes and stops. This is the most common call we attend and it is the cheapest thing on this list to prevent.
03
A flat battery in a perfect machine
The battery is the only component whose failure makes the whole set useless regardless of its condition. It self-discharges unused, behind a trickle charger whose own failure is silent, and nobody looks at it until the moment it is needed. Half of the transfer-switch faults we are called to are a battery that could not crank.
04
An acoustic canopy bought or skipped for the wrong reason
NEMA permits 50 dB by day and 35 dB at night at a residential boundary, with penalties to KES 350,000. In a Kilimani block with a three-metre boundary a standard canopy is frequently not enough and attenuated louvres are needed. In Industrial Area, where the zone allows 70 dB by day, a residential canopy is money that should have gone on the alternator.
05
A plant room that cannot breathe
A generator rejects a great deal of heat. Put it in a space sized to fit the machine rather than to move air and it recirculates its own exhaust heat, loses output against its plate rating and eventually shuts down on temperature while appearing mechanically sound. Louvre area is part of the design, not a detail to add later.
06
The AVR replaced three times
A voltage regulator that fails once is a component failure. One that fails repeatedly is a symptom: the excitation circuit, the rotating rectifier, severe imbalance across phases, or a set running far below the load it needs to regulate properly. Fitting a fourth regulator is the expensive way not to find out.
Buying a generator
By type and by the sizes Kenyans actually search for, each page saying what that set genuinely runs and, more usefully, what it will not.
- Diesel Generators Diesel sets from small silent standby machines to industrial plant, with the market's real price structure set out including the discontinuity that catches most first-time buyers.
- Silent & Soundproof Generators Canopied sets and what a canopy does and does not achieve, judged against the noise limit that applies at your boundary rather than against the figure on the brochure.
- Portable Generators Small petrol sets for homes and small businesses, with the real price spread between budget imports and Honda set out plainly, and an honest account of what they will not run.
- Three Phase Generators Three phase sets for workshops, factories and larger buildings, where the sizing case is the largest motor start and the commonest fault is a set unbalanced across its phases.
- 5kVA Generators The entry point for whole-house cover in a modest Kenyan home, available as a petrol portable from around KES 45,000 or as silent diesel from around KES 145,000.
- 7.5kVA Generators A useful standby size for a family house without electric water heating, and the clearest example in the Kenyan market of brand mattering more than rating.
Or maybe you do not need a generator
In an apartment where the boundary is three metres away there may be no legal place to put a generator at all, and for frequent short outages an inverter is silent, instant and maintenance-free. It also cannot start a borehole pump. Here is the honest comparison.
- Inverters & Battery Backup Battery inverter systems for silent, instant backup, with a straight account of where they beat a generator and where they cannot replace one.
- Solar Generators & Solar Backup Solar backup and the portable battery units marketed as solar generators, with the terminology untangled and a straight account of what each will and will not run.
Where we work
Generator work genuinely changes street by street. What has to start, where a set can legally sit and how it physically reaches the plot are different in a Kilimani block from a Karen half-acre or an Industrial Area godown.
- Athi River & Kitengela
- Embakasi & Utawala
- Gigiri
- Industrial Area
- Karen
- Kasarani & Roysambu
- Kiambu Road
- Kikuyu & Kinoo
- Kileleshwa
- Kilimani
- Kitisuru
- Lang'ata
- Lavington
- Limuru & Tigoni
- Mombasa Road
- Muthaiga
- Nairobi CBD
- Ngong
- Ongata Rongai & Kiserian
- Parklands
- Ruaka & Two Rivers
- Ruiru
- Runda
- South B & South C
- Syokimau & Mlolongo
- Thika Road
- Upper Hill
- Westlands
FAQ
▸How much does a generator cost in Kenya?
From about KES 30,000 for a 2kVA petrol portable to KES 1,660,000 for a 50kVA industrial Cummins. The useful thing to know is that there are three separate markets rather than one price curve: petrol portables to about 9kVA, imported silent diesel from 6 to 12kVA, and genuine industrial plant from 20kVA up. Our prices page sets all three out.
▸What size generator do I need?
It is decided by the largest thing that has to start, not by the total of everything you own. If you have a submersible borehole pump, that pump sets the size. If you have a workshop compressor, that compressor does. Tell us the plate rating of the biggest motor and we can answer it properly.
▸Will a generator run my borehole pump?
Only if it was sized for the pump starting rather than the pump running. A submersible can demand six to eight times its running current for a second or two on start. A portable petrol set will not do it at all. A soft starter on the pump is often cheaper than the next generator size up.
▸Do you repair generators you did not sell?
Yes. Most of what we repair and service was bought somewhere else.
▸Is my generator legal where it is?
It depends on the measured sound level at your boundary rather than on the figure in the brochure. The night limit at a residential boundary is 35 dB, which is genuinely quiet, and the manufacturer figure is measured in free field conditions a yard or plant room does not reproduce.
▸Do I need an inverter or a generator?
An inverter is silent, instant and needs no fuel, and it cannot start a borehole pump or outlast its battery. A generator does both and costs money every hour it runs. For frequent short outages an inverter is usually better; for long outages and heavy starts you need a generator. Many Nairobi homes are best served by one of each.