By type
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.
Suits
- Lights, TV, router and phone charging
- A fridge or a freezer through an outage
- Salons, barbers, cyber cafes and small shops
- Site power and events
Real prices, and the Honda question
Budget imported petrol sets run from about KES 30,000 for 2 kVA with a rope start to about KES 95,000 for 9.4 kVA three phase. In between, 3 kVA is around KES 37,000 with a key start, 4.5 kVA around KES 45,000, and 6.5 kVA around KES 69,000 to 78,000.
Honda sits in a different place entirely: 2.5 kVA around KES 72,000, 4.5 kVA around KES 135,000, 5.5 kVA around KES 155,000 and 6.5 kVA around KES 160,000. Roughly three times a budget set of the same rating.
Honda is also the most-searched generator brand in Kenya by a wide margin, which suggests the premium is understood. What you are buying is engine hours, the ability to start after months of standing, and parts you can still get in five years. For a household that expects to use the set a handful of times a year, a budget import is a reasonable decision. For a salon or a butchery whose takings stop when the power does, the cheap set is usually the expensive one.
What a portable set will not do
The disappointment is almost always the same three loads.
A borehole or submersible pump. The starting inrush is beyond what a small petrol set can supply. If you are on a borehole, you need a diesel standby set sized for the pump start, or a soft starter fitted to the pump.
Electric water heating. An instant shower is typically 6 to 9 kW on its own.
Several large motor loads at once. Salon dryers are the common case: one is fine, four simultaneously is a different machine.
Key start or rope start
The price difference is around KES 4,000 to 5,000 and it is worth it on any set that will be started in the dark, in the rain, or by somebody who did not choose it. Rope starting a warm engine is easy and rope starting a cold one repeatedly is not.
Safety, briefly and seriously
Petrol generators produce carbon monoxide and people in Kenya die from running them indoors. A portable set runs outside, or in a space that is genuinely open to outside air, never in a closed garage, a corridor, a shop with the shutter down, or under a window. There is no safe way to run one in an enclosed room.
FAQ
▸Why is a Honda three times the price of a budget generator of the same rating?
A 5.5kVA budget import lists around KES 45,000 and a 5.5kVA Honda around KES 155,000. You are paying for engine life measured in thousands of hours rather than hundreds, parts availability years from now, and an engine that will still start after standing idle. For occasional home use the budget set is defensible. For a business whose income stops when the power does, it usually is not.
▸Will a portable generator run my borehole pump?
Almost certainly not. A submersible pump draws six to eight times its running current on start, and a portable petrol set has no capacity to absorb that. This is the most common disappointed purchase we see.
▸Can a portable set run an electric shower or a cooker?
No. An instant electric shower alone is typically 6 to 9 kW, which exceeds most portable sets before anything else is switched on.
▸Petrol or diesel for a small set?
Petrol below about 6kVA and for occasional use: cheaper to buy, lighter, easier to move. Diesel above that and for regular running: more expensive to buy, cheaper per hour, far longer life.