Renewing a Kenyan health facility licence
How a Kenyan clinic or hospital renews its annual KMPDC facility licence online, the fees KMPDC lists by facility type, and how to budget and record them.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Healthcare businesses in Kenya
For a private clinic, medical centre or hospital in Kenya, the annual facility licence is one of those obligations that arrives every year and still catches people out. The renewal falls in a busy month, the person who handled it last year has left, and the payment is made in a rush from whoever's M-Pesa or card is to hand. The licence gets renewed; the books end up with an unexplained payment and no budget line for it.
This article covers how the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) describes facility licensing, the fees it lists by facility type at the time of writing, the renewal resources it publishes, and how a facility can plan for the cost and record it properly.
Facility licensing is a KMPDC mandate
KMPDC says that licensing all eligible health facilities is one of its core mandates, and that annual facility licences can now be applied for online on its Online Services Portal, at osp.kmpdc.go.ke.
Moving online changes who does the work. The application is no longer a trip to an office with a cheque; it is a login, uploads and an online payment. That makes it easy to delegate, and easy to lose track of. Decide who in the facility owns the renewal, make sure the portal login is held by the business rather than one person, and diarise the renewal well ahead of the licence's expiry.
Annual fees by facility type
KMPDC lists annual health facility licence fees for 2025 by type of facility. At the time of writing, its page shows:
| Facility type | Annual licence fee (2025) |
|---|---|
| Dispensary | KShs 5,000.00 |
| Medical clinic or dental clinic | KShs 15,000.00 |
| Medical centre | KShs 20,000.00 |
| Maternity home | KShs 25,000.00 |
| Nursing home | KShs 30,000.00 |
KMPDC lists public county health facilities at KShs 0.00.
These figures are KMPDC's published 2025 fees. Fees can change, so confirm the current amount on KMPDC's licensing of a health facility page, which lists the fees by facility type and the renewal resources, before you budget or pay.
Level 4 and Level 5 hospitals
For larger facilities, KMPDC lists annual licence fees for 2025 of KShs 80,000.00 for a Level 4 hospital and KShs 90,000.00 for a Level 5 hospital, at the time of writing.
A hospital at these levels is likely to have other licences and registrations renewing during the year as well. It helps to keep all of them on one calendar, with the responsible person and the expected cost beside each.
The renewal manuals and the indemnity format
KMPDC's licence renewal resources include procedure manuals for public county facilities and for other facilities, and a sample format of the Health Institution Professional Indemnity.
Before each renewal, download the current manual for your type of facility and read it, rather than relying on how it was done last year. Check the professional indemnity document against KMPDC's sample format, and make sure the cover is in place and current before you apply. Keep a copy of everything you submit.
Recording the fee in the books
On Achekam, the licence fee is recorded as a supplier bill from KMPDC. A business records supplier bills line by line; a bill without a purchase order waits for approval before it posts, and it can be paid in full or in parts from a chosen bank account. That approval step is useful here: the person who renews the licence enters the bill, and someone else approves it, so the payment is checked before it goes into the books.
A licence fee covers a whole year. If your facility's financial year and the licence year do not line up, or if you prepare monthly management accounts, consider spreading the cost across the months it covers rather than charging it all to the month it was paid. A common approach is:
- Post the bill to a prepaid expenses account rather than straight to an expense.
- Each month, post a manual journal moving one month's share from prepaid expenses to a licence fees expense account.
Achekam refuses a manual journal that does not balance or that is dated in a closed month, and a posted journal is corrected only by a reversal, so each monthly entry stays in the month it belongs to. Ask your accountant whether spreading the fee is worth it for your facility; for a small dispensary, charging it when paid may be simpler and immaterial.
Putting the licence in the annual budget
On Achekam, a business can set a budget per account and period and compare it with actual figures from its ledger. Add the facility licence as its own budget line, in the month you expect to pay it, at the fee KMPDC currently lists for your facility type. When the month comes, the comparison shows at once whether the licence has been paid and whether the amount matched what you expected.
How to build the rest of the year's budget around fixed costs like this one is set out in setting a practice budget and checking it monthly. If the facility is new and its books are not yet set up, setting up the books before a new practice opens covers the accounts to create first.
Achekam does not apply for or renew the licence, and it does not connect to the KMPDC portal; the facility does that itself.
A renewal checklist
- Confirm who owns the renewal and who holds the portal login.
- Diarise the renewal date, with a reminder well before it.
- Check KMPDC's current fee for your facility type and update the budget line.
- Download the current renewal manual and check the indemnity format.
- Apply and pay on the portal, and keep the receipt and the licence.
- Enter the supplier bill for approval, and spread it across the year if your accountant recommends it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
