Finding the best cost of CCTV installation in Kenya is difficult. However, while it's true that cost is the first thing that comes to mind for anyone intending to install a CCTV surveillance system, there are a dozen more factors to consider to make the best-informed decision on the best CCTV system.
If you are looking for a CCTV installation for home or business, or you want to know the options that are available, we have created this article for you.
In this article, we will discuss in-depth the different CCTV systems available in Kenya, How to calculate the cost of CCTV installation in Kenya, and we will also provide a realistic price range for different CCTV systems available, we will highlight the different aspects that you must consider before you make your final purchase. Finally, give you a list of the best home security systems and CCTV Installation Companies in Kenya.
Cost Of CCTV Installation In Kenya
In Kenya, the average cost of a 4 Camera CCTV system installation is Shillings 25,000 to Ksh 40,000. However, the price for a professional CCTV installation can vary drastically mainly because of the type of CCTV system, and the number of cameras being installed.
Therefore, when planning for a CCTV installation, it's always good to give more attention on the areas which need surveillance. Later, decide on how best you want the area to be monitored. That’s what will eventually guide you to choosing your best CCTV system with the best cost implication.
To guide you on this, you should consider the factors highlighted below.
What Should You Consider On The Cost Of CCTV Installation In Kenya?
There are many factors that should be considered when calculating the cost of CCTV installation in Kenya. To shine more light, we will discuss on 10 main factors to consider before undertaking any CCTV installation project.
10 Factors To Consider Before Undertaking A CCTV Installation Project
1. Consider the Number of cameras you intend to install
Depending on the size of your facility, you may require from a few to many CCTV cameras, this will be dictated mainly by the extent of the areas that you want to monitor.
In order to have a rough estimate of the number of CCTV cameras required, you should ask yourself this 3 questions.
A. Which Are The Most Important Areas That You Would Like To Monitor?
The most important areas of your home or business are the one that have anything that is of value to you.
In a home setup, the most valuable asset is your family and property. Therefore since your main aim is to protect your family, you may think of the compound , main gate and the perimeter fence as your first choice.
The main aim here is to be alerted immediately about any intruder trying to access your house.
Therefore, you have to make sure you cover all corners of your property.
Compound
The compound includes not only the general outer space of your home, but also areas like the outer parking spots, areas where you keep expensive things like bicycles, tools, and even the swimming pool area.
Entrance Areas
CCTV installation at all entrances is very important. The entrance areas include all areas that can be used to access your house. This includes the main gate, Main door, back door, windows that might be broken into, and even the perimeter wall.
Internal Rooms
The internal rooms includes the baby’s room, living room, garage and even kitchen. This areas are usually overlooked but are still key areas when it comes to the overall family security.
B. Which Areas Should I omit or Not Cover?
There are some areas in your house that can be omitted. These areas are less risky, or areas that don’t present any security challenges.
Side walls of the house-If you have covered the perimeter walls and the general compound, there is no need of covering the side wall. There is no way an intruder is going to access it without passing through the perimeter wall.
Upper Windows and doors-Like the side walls, upper windows and doors are almost impossible to access. Therefore, if the compound is well covered by the CCTV cameras, this areas can be omitted.
Private Rooms:- CCTV Cameras should not be installed in Private rooms like toilets bathrooms
Interior rooms– many people consider all interior rooms private and will not bother installing CCTV cameras in interior rooms and even the living room.
However, if you have the little ones under the care of someone else, you can consider installing CCTV cameras in the baby’s room, playing areas and even the living room.
2. Will You Be Expanding Your House or Adding More Cameras In Future
If you have any plans of expanding your house or adding more rooms, you might consider a CCTV system that is flexible enough to allow addition of more CCTV cameras in the future.
Some other examples include;
- Construction of a new garage or a tools shed in the compound which might obstruct the normal coverage of the existing CCTV cameras.
- A business might expand by adding an extra room or office.
- A warehouse can increase the number of shelves requiring additional cameras to cover all areas.
3. The Cost Of CCTV Installation On A Wired Or Wireless Kit / Type of CCTV system to be installed
You may opt for either a wired or a wireless, installation depending on a number of factors. Wireless installation offers convenience and flexibility, while a wired system will offer a long lasting solution with low or zero maintenance cost.
Basically, Wired systems are less for the cost of parts but more for the cost of installation at about Ksh 1500 to Ksh3500 per camera, compared to their wireless counterparts at about Ksh5000 to Ksh20000 per camera.
Wireless cameras are slightly expensive to purchase but are very fast and cheap to install and set up they are the best options for indoor cameras, or for areas requiring just a few surveillance cameras.
The table below highlights the Prices for wireless cameras from different manufacturers.
| Manufacturer | HD 1080P Resolution | Price (Ksh) |
| Ezviz | YES | 6500 |
| Anspo | YES | 5500 |
| Hi Look | YES | 4500 |
Wired cameras are cheap to purchase but expensive to install. However, once installed, the overall maintenance of a wired system is very low and actually requires little or no maintenance
4. The budget at hand
If you are working on a restricted budget or you don’t want to overspend, you should not only choose a CCTV system that’s right on your budget, but also one that serves you well.
The hard question therefore is, how cheap should you go? The perfect answer to this question is market research, which will get you right to the best offers in the market.
In Kenya, you can get a high-quality CCTV camera from Ksh 3,500 which will work right out of the box.
5. Remote viewing capabilities
Nowadays almost all CCTV systems can be configured to be viewed remotely on a phone or pc. However, for this to happen, the CCTV system has to be connected to the internet. This can be achieved either through
wireless means over Wi-Fi, or be wired to the system through an Ethernet port.
In Kenya, a sambaza Internet connections which should be good for a small CCTV system.
Prices start from as low as Shillings 2,000 for a speed of 5Mbps TO 10Mbps depending on the locality. Usually, billing is set monthly although this can vary from one operator to the other.
If you however live in remote areas, these services might not be available. In this case, you may opt for other forms of internet connections like Wi-Max or wireless broadband which can be offered by local operators like Safaricom, Airtel, & Telcom.
A point to note though, setting up a wi-max connection can be a bit expensive in terms of equipment costs, and also on the monthly billing.
Other connectivity options include using the new 4G Wi-Fi router. They offer good internet speeds and are reliable. This is especially good if you don’t want to go over the hassle of signup and installation of Wi-Max or you don’t have enough funds at hand.
4G CPE routers can be purchased from the different local communication companies and their prices are as follows. prices are tabulated in the table below.
| OPERATOR | ROUTER PRICE (Ksh) | MONTHLY DATA BUNDLE PRICE | STARTUP DATA BUNDLE |
| Safaricom | 10,999 | 200GB @ Ksh 4,999 | No Offer |
| Airtel | 7,499 | 48GB @ Ksh 3,000 | Free 25GB |
| Telcom | 8,999 | Unlimited Plan @ Ksh 5,500 | Free 10GB |
6. Where the cameras will be installed
You may require a CCTV camera to be installed in special locations which might be hard to access, or require special equipment’s.
This type of installation must be carried out by a qualified technician. Price for such installations are not usually fixed and are usually determined by a site survey to identify the exact extent of work to be carried out, and the type of equipment’s required to accomplish the task..
7. Size of your premises
The size of a premises can directly affect the cost of a CCTV installation. The bigger the premises, the more the number of cameras that will be required to cover the whole area effectively.
Also, very big areas also require different installation approach for example a big area can be subdivided into zones, which are more realistic and easier to monitor. Each of these zones will be treated as an independent installation. Finally, all the different zones will be interconnected to a central command center where all the monitoring and data storage will take place.
8. CCTV Installation Cost On Internal or External CCTV Cameras
Depending on the requirements you may opt for either internal or external cameras.
The major difference between the two is that Indoor cameras don’t have the protection against the elements like rain sun and dust.
On the other hand, External cameras are built to withstand the weather elements.
The price range for ordinary wired CCTV cameras doesn’t vary much for both indoor and outdoor cameras.
In the table below we have compared the prices for some of the available CCTV cameras in the market.
- Analogue High Definition (AHD)
- Internet Protocol Cameras (IP)
| MANUFACTURER | 720P AHD | 1080P AHD | 2MP IP | 4 MP 4K |
| Hik-Vision | Ksh 1,500 | Ksh 2,100 | KSH 4,000 | Ksh 7,000 |
| Dahua | Ksh 1,400 | Ksh 2,000 | Ksh 3,900 | Ksh 6,900 |
| HiLook | Ksh1,300 | Ksh 1,800 | Ksh 3,000 | – |
9. CCTV Installation Cost Depending On The Type of storage
A CCTV system can either store the recording data locally on a surveillance hard disk drive, or store on a cloud server. These two options can greatly affect the cost of CCTV installation depending on which one will be employed.
A system can either use local storage, local storage plus cloud, or purely cloud.
Either options will offer a solution where you can be able to load earlier recorded data. However the cloud service is more flexible in terms of storage space, and pricing.
The major disadvantage of this system though is, its 100% reliant on internet connection, meaning when there is no network the system cant record.
10. Resolution / Clarity Of The CCTV Camera Lens
One of the determining factor in the cost of CCTV Camera installation is the resolution. To the normal human eyes, this is the clarity of the image or simply how true the image looks as compared to the original.
The resolution of an image is measured in pixels abbreviated by a letter “P” (ie 1080P) which means a count of 1080 Pixels per every square inch of an image. The more the pixels in an image, the more clear it is.
Cost-wise, High-resolution cameras are more expensive than their counterparts. In Kenya, you can currently get cameras with resolution from as low as 420P, 720P, 1080P and the latest models at 4K clarity.
Prices for different models are as shown in the table below.
| MANUFACTURER | RESOLUTION | PRICE (Ksh) |
| Hik-Vision | 720P | 1,500 |
| Hik-Vision | 1080P | 2,100 |
| Hik-Vision | 4k | 7,100 |
Hik-Vision CCTV Installation Cost Comparison 720P, 1080P, & 4K
Hik-Vision is one of the best brands of CCTV in Kenya. In the table below, we have compared the CCTV installation price for Hik-Vision CCTV models depending on different resolutions for a 4 camera CCTV system Installation.
| MODEL | RESOLUTION | PRICE (Ksh) |
| Hik-Vision | AHD 720P | 25,000 |
| AHD 1080P | 30,000 | |
| IP (2MP) | 40,000 | |
| IP (4MP) /4K | 50,000 |
Here is a List of the Best CCTV Installation Companies in Kenya.
SECUWAY KENYA
Best for Gates & Barries, Alarm System, Electric Fencing installation, CCTV Cameras, Time and Attendance System, Biometric RFID Access Control
Address: Old Mutual Building 2nd Floor Room 221, Kimathi Street, Nairobi City, Kenya, Kenya
Security system supplier in Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254 785 102788
Security Systems International Ltd
Address: Off Enterprise Road, Industrial Area, Nairobi
Phone: +254 727 700 939
Email: sales@securitysystemsintltd.com
Pro-Alarms Security Limited
Address: Next to Naivas Supermarket, Outering Road, Ruaraka
Phone: +254 723 446 577
Email: admin@proalarmtec.co.ke
Alltech Security Systems
Phone: +254 722 967 544, +254 733 516 965
Almiria Networks Kenya
AlmiriaNetworks Kenya for Biometric Access Control Systems, Burglar Alarm, Surveillance Camera CCTV Installation, Electric Fences, Automated Gates, Business Phone System Installation, Call Center, Point of Sale, Data Cabling, IP PABX PBX
Telecommunications service provider in Nairobi, Kenya
Address: Kimathi Street Old Mutual Building 2nd Floor Room 221, Kenya
Phone: +254 700 449 778, +254 733 491 423
Email: sales@almiria.co.ke
Solutions Unlimited
Address: Intrade Africa Place, Lavington, Nairobi
Phone: +254 704 455 673, +254 20 2014 802
Email: servicedesk@solutionsunlimited.co.ke
Unified Security Systems
Security system installer in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a leading service provider for integrated electronic security systems in Kenya. This includes alarm systems, CCTV systems and video door phones.
Located in: Allianz Plaza
Address: 6th Floor Allianz Plaza, 96 Riverside Dr, Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254 780 427 275
Hubtech Limited
Address: Old Mutual Building, Kimathi Street, 2nd Floor, Rm 205 E, Nairobi
Phone: +254 703 245 951
Email: sales@hubtech.co.ke
Own It Security Systems
Security system supplier in Nairobi, Kenya
Address: 3rd Floor, Kipro Systems, Nairobi
Phone: +254 725 790 734, +254 722 708 034
Email: info@ownitsecurity.co.ke
Seetec Solutions
Security system supplier in Nairobi, Kenya. Razor wire installers, Electric fence installers,IP CCTV Cameras Kenya, Automatic gate installer in Kenya sliding gate in Kenya automatic gate in Kenya, Electric fence installers, Razorwire installers, CCTV cameras, Access control Kenya, K40, Aluminium Folding Ladders in Kenya
Address: Accra Rd, Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254 719 402 315, +254 739 548 578
Oraco Kenya
IP PBX, PABX system, Call Center system, IVR, Cloud PBX, Structured cabling and networking, IT Support
Address: Epren Centre, Bururburu, Nairobi
Phone: +254 721 574 890, +254 703 151 823
Email: solutions@oraco.co.ke
CONCLUSION
The cost of CCTV installation can range anywhere from free if you choose to do it yourself, to between hundreds, or thousands of shillings depending on the number of CCTV Cameras being installed. It all depends on whom you will choose to do the installation for you.
The average cost of installing one CCTV Camera is Shillings 2,000 in Kenya. However as mentioned earlier, this cost may vary depending on many other factors.
CCTV installation cost of many cameras can be agreed on a fixed figure depending on the extent of work involved.
Sometimes you might have some little knowhow, and it might be tempting to do the installation by yourself to save some shillings. However, It's always a good idea to leave the work to the professional CCTV installers.