Most trades in Kenya are not licensed, and that is not a scandal
There is no register of plumbers, painters, carpenters, cleaners or mechanics in Kenya, and no licence any of them are required to hold to work in your home. That is also true in most countries for most trades.
What that means practically is that for the majority of jobs, a certificate is not the check that protects you. References, a clear scope, an agreed price and a payment that is not handed over in advance do far more work than any document.
A few trades are genuinely regulated, and for those the check is worth making properly. They are the ones below.
Electrical work: EPRA
The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority licenses electrical workers and electrical contractors in Kenya, in classes tied to the qualifications held and the scale of work permitted. Class requirements run from basic technical qualifications up to degree-level engineering.
For replacing a socket or hanging a light fitting, this is not the thing to hold a job up over. For a rewire, a new consumer unit, a three-phase supply, or anything touching the meter, ask which class of EPRA licence the person holds — and ask a contractor rather than an individual for anything at building scale.
Building and construction: NCA
Contractors undertaking construction works in Kenya are required to register with the National Construction Authority. Registration is in classes tied to the value of the works a contractor may undertake, and specialist categories exist for particular kinds of work.
For an extension, a new build, a roof or any structural change, ask for the NCA registration and check that the class covers a project of your value. For a bathroom retile, it does not apply.
Separately: structural work needs a qualified engineer's design, not a contractor's opinion. Removing a wall, cutting a new opening in a load-bearing wall, or adding a floor are the three that most often get done on somebody's confidence and cost far more to put right afterwards.
Private security: PSRA
Private security in Kenya is regulated by the Private Security Regulatory Authority, which registers private security service providers. If you are engaging guards for a home, a site or a business on any ongoing basis, ask whether the guard or their company is registered.
There is a second thing worth knowing here. Kenya sets statutory minimum wages for security guards, and a quote far below the going rate usually means the guard is not receiving it. That is not a bargain — it is a person who will be looking for other work while they are supposed to be watching your premises.
Trade certificates: NITA
The National Industrial Training Authority runs Kenya's trade testing, and its certificates are the standard proof of an artisan trade. Grade III is the entry-level artisan certificate and Grade I the highest.
Treat a NITA grade as a genuine positive, not a requirement. Many of the best fundis in Kenya learned through apprenticeship and never sat a trade test, and the certificate says nothing about whether somebody turns up on time or cleans up afterwards.
Care and childcare: the checks that matter more
For anybody who will be alone with your children or with an elderly or unwell relative, the documents are not the main protection. Meeting them at your home before the first booking is, and so is taking identification and calling the references yourself.
Ask for two families they have worked for and call both. People who are good at this expect to be asked and will offer the numbers before you do. Somebody who is reluctant has told you something.
Where any nursing task is involved — wound care, injections, catheters, oxygen — that is clinical work and the training and registration for it should be checked and verified, not taken on trust.
What to ask when there is no licence to ask for
For the majority of jobs, these five questions do more than any certificate would.
- Can I see photographs of two finished jobs like this one?
- Can I speak to the last customer you did this for?
- What exactly is included in this price, and what is not?
- Who buys the materials?
- What happens if it is not right — do you come back?
And the check that does not depend on anybody's answer
Do not pay in full up front. That is the one rule that holds regardless of trade, credential, references or how well the conversation went.
On Help24 the payment is held rather than handed over: you pay by M-Pesa, the provider can see the money is there, and neither side can move it until the work is confirmed done. That is the same protection a staged payment schedule gives you on a large job, applied to a one-hour one.