How Much Does Therapy Cost in Nairobi in 2026?

One thing to know before any figure: Kenya's NHIF no longer exists. It was replaced by the Social Health Authority under the Social Health Insurance Act No. 16 of 2023, and financing now runs through three funds. Any page still telling you what "NHIF covers" is describing a scheme that has been dissolved: that included, until today, this one.

These are guiding estimates. Therapists set their own fees, and Nairobi practices rarely publish them; we are not publishing a price list we cannot trace to sources that charge it.

How the new system treats mental health

The Ministry of Health's own 2026 tariff assessment sets out "SHIF Mental Wellness Tariffs for Healthcare Services, Level 2-6": outpatient mental health services are reimbursed within the outpatient package at Level 2, 3 and select Level 4 primary healthcare facilities empanelled by the Authority, and inpatient behavioural care is provided at the higher levels under set tariffs. In practice: register with the SHA, and the funded route runs through empanelled public and contracted facilities, starting at primary care level.

In Nairobi the public chain starts at your nearest empanelled health centre and runs up through the county referral system; Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital is the national specialist psychiatric hospital, reached by referral.

If you are paying privately

Ask the fee and the session length; whether a sliding scale exists; and whether online sessions cost less, which widens the pool well beyond Nairobi. Fees track the practitioner's profession and seniority: counsellors generally charge less than psychologists, and psychiatrists, as medical specialists, the most.

If you need someone now

Befrienders Kenya offers free emotional support; its current contact details are on its own site. In an emergency call 999.

Sources

• Ministry of Health, Regulatory Impact Assessment for Tariffs for Healthcare Services as amended 2026: the SHIF Mental Wellness tariffs, the three-fund structure and the facility levels, read at source.
• Social Health Authority, sha.go.ke: registration and the funds.

Reviewed July 2026. The scheme structure and tariffs are from the Ministry's own statutory-instrument assessment, February 2026. The NHIF references previously on this page were removed because that fund has been dissolved.