The short answer#
You can charge an electric car in an apartment or a rented house in Kenya, and EPRA's 2023 guidelines allow private charging at residences. Three things have to be settled first: written consent from the landlord or management company, which meter the charger runs from, and a safe cable route from that supply to your parking bay. The charger must be certified, separately metered and signed off by a licensed electrical contractor before use, the same as in a house you own.
Step 1: get consent in writing#
Ask the landlord, or the management company in an apartment block, before any work. They will want to know where the charger goes, how the cable runs, who pays for the electricity and what happens when you leave. A one-page proposal with a sketch answers most of it. A survey report gives you that page.
Step 2: decide whose electricity it is#
| Arrangement | How it works | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Your own meter | The charger is wired to your unit's supply or to a new meter in your name | Houses, maisonettes and blocks where the meter room is near the parking |
| The landlord's supply, with a sub-meter | The charger runs from the common supply and its own meter records your units | Basement or yard parking far from your unit |
| A shared charger | One or more chargers for all residents, each user identified and billed | Blocks with several EV owners |
EPRA's guidelines require a charging point to be separately metered, so that its consumption is recorded and billed at the EV tariff (clause 2.7), and they apply the e-mobility tariff to domestic charging (clause 7.2). The tariff is KES 16 per kWh, or KES 8 off-peak, before levies and VAT; see the Kenya Power EV tariff.
Step 3: check the supply and the route#
- Spare capacity. A 7 kW charger draws up to 32 A. In a block, several chargers on one supply need load sharing so they never exceed what the building can carry.
- The route. The cable needs a protected path from the meter or distribution board to the bay: trunking on walls, conduit across a yard, never a lead through a window.
- The bay. A wall or a post at the head of the bay, out of the way of other cars.
Step 4: install and certify#
The charger must be certified by the Kenya Bureau of Standards or another accredited body (clause 2.5) and inspected, tested and given a completion certificate by a licensed electrical contractor before use (clause 2.6). Keep a copy for the landlord.
If you only have a wall socket#
A portable cable on a 13 A socket adds a few kilometres of range an hour and works as a stopgap if the socket and its circuit are in good condition. It is slow, and an extension lead is unsafe for it. See how to charge an electric car at home.
When you move#
Agree at the start who owns the charger. A wallbox can be removed and the circuit made safe by a contractor, or left in place for the next tenant if the landlord buys it.
For landlords and management companies#
A charger in the parking area is becoming something tenants ask about. Shared chargers with each user billed for their own units keep the cost off the service charge. Pulse+ shares the available power between several cars, and the engineering service sizes the supply for a whole block.
Where Precifarm fits#
The free EV survey covers the supply, the route, the bay and a written quote you can show the landlord. The home charger is Pulse, from KES 79,000 with a standard installation.