How Much Does the McTaba Bootcamp Cost? (And What You Actually Get)

The McTaba bootcamp costs KES 120,000. That is the price for the full marathon programme.

No application fees. No hidden "materials fee" that shows up after you enrol. No tiered pricing where you pay more to get the features that actually matter. KES 120,000 is the number. You can pay upfront, in 2 installments (KES 60,000 + KES 60,000), or 3 installments (KES 40,000 x 3).

We are putting this at the top of the page because that is probably why you are here. If you searched for "mctaba fees" or "maktaba cost," you wanted a straight answer, not four paragraphs of preamble before the price appears. So there it is.

Now let us talk about what that number actually buys you.

The bootcamp fee covers everything you need for the programme. Here is the full list:

Live instruction

You are not watching pre-recorded videos at your own pace. The marathon includes live teaching sessions where instructors walk through concepts, demonstrate real code, and answer questions in real time. This is the single biggest difference between a bootcamp and a self-paced course: you get a teacher, not just a recording.

Dedicated mentor access

Each learner gets access to a mentor who reviews their progress, helps debug problems, and provides guidance on projects. When you are stuck on an M-Pesa integration at 10pm and Stack Overflow does not have the answer, your mentor does.

Project reviews

Throughout the 6 months, you build multiple production-grade projects. Each one gets reviewed by experienced developers who give you feedback on your code quality, architecture decisions, and deployment approach. This feedback loop is what separates bootcamp learning from tutorial-following.

Career support

Portfolio review, interview preparation, CV feedback, and connections to hiring partners. The programme does not end when you finish the last module. Getting you into a job is part of the deal.

Community access

You join the McTaba community of current learners and graduates. This is not a Slack group that dies after your cohort ends. It is a network of developers building in the Kenyan and broader African tech ecosystem. Job referrals, code help, and collaboration opportunities flow through this community long after your 6 months are over.

What is NOT included

You need your own laptop and internet connection. McTaba does not provide hardware or cover your data costs. You will also need accounts on GitHub, Vercel, and other free developer tools, but those do not cost anything.

McTaba accepts payment via M-Pesa. The payment details:

• Paybill Number: 880100
• Account Number: PAYMACTABA

This is the same process as paying any other bill through M-Pesa. Go to M-Pesa > Lipa na M-Pesa > Pay Bill, enter the Paybill number and account, and confirm the amount.

Installment plans

If paying KES 120,000 upfront is not feasible, you have two installment options: 2 installments of KES 60,000 each, or 3 installments of KES 40,000 each. Contact the admissions team for the exact payment schedule and deadlines for your cohort.

Other payment methods

For payments from outside Kenya or if you need to pay via bank transfer, contact the team directly. M-Pesa is the primary and fastest method for Kenya-based learners.

Price means nothing without context. Here is how the McTaba bootcamp stacks up against the other realistic paths into software development in Kenya.

University CS degree: KES 150,000 to 600,000 per year, 4 years

A computer science degree from the University of Nairobi, JKUAT, or Strathmore costs between KES 150,000 and KES 600,000 per year depending on the institution and whether you are a self-sponsored or government-sponsored student. Over four years, that is KES 600,000 to KES 2,400,000 total. The degree gives you theoretical foundations and a credential that some employers still require. But 4 years is a long time, the curriculum often lags behind industry by several years, and you will still need to learn M-Pesa integration, modern frameworks, and deployment on your own.

McTaba costs 5% to 20% of what a full university degree costs, and gets you building production software in 4 to 6 months instead of 4 years.

Moringa School: KES 150,000+

Moringa is Kenya's most established coding bootcamp. Their programme runs at a higher price point than McTaba. They have a strong track record and a large alumni network. If you are comparing the two, the key differences are price, programme structure, and curriculum emphasis. We have a detailed breakdown in our best coding bootcamps in Kenya guide.

ALX Software Engineering: Free (but 12 months)

ALX does not charge tuition. That is genuinely appealing if budget is your primary constraint. The trade-off is time: the ALX programme runs for about 12 months, and the workload is heavy. The programme is also more generalist and less focused on the African Stack. Free is hard to argue against on price alone, but if you can invest KES 120,000 to compress your timeline by 6 months, that is 6 months of earning a developer salary sooner. At even a modest junior salary of KES 50,000/month, that is KES 300,000 in earnings.

Self-taught: KES 0 to 5,000/month

Free resources like freeCodeCamp, The Odin Project, and YouTube can teach you the basics. The financial cost is essentially your internet bill. The hidden cost is time and dropout risk. Most self-taught learners quit within the first two months. No mentor, no deadlines, no cohort to keep you accountable. For highly disciplined learners, self-teaching works. For most people, the lack of structure is the reason they never finish.

Here is the comparison in a table:

Option	Cost	Duration	Mentorship	Job-ready projects
McTaba Marathon	KES 120,000	4-6 months	Yes	Yes (8+ projects)
University degree	KES 600K-2.4M	4 years	Limited	Usually no
Moringa School	KES 150,000+	~20 weeks	Yes	Yes
ALX	Free	~12 months	Peer-based	Yes
Self-taught	KES 0-5,000/mo	12-18 months	No	Depends on you

We could put a shiny infographic here showing how the bootcamp "pays for itself in X months." Instead, let us walk through the math honestly, including the parts we cannot guarantee.

What we know

Junior developer salaries in Nairobi range from KES 40,000 to KES 80,000 per month. At the low end, KES 40,000/month means you recoup the KES 120,000 bootcamp fee in 3 months of working. At the higher end, it takes about 1.5 months.

Even compared to the cheapest alternative (self-teaching for 12 to 18 months), the bootcamp compresses your timeline to 4-6 months. If the bootcamp gets you earning 6 months sooner than self-teaching would, and you earn even KES 40,000/month during those 6 months, that is KES 240,000 in earnings you would not have had. Subtract the KES 120,000 fee and you are still KES 120,000 ahead.

What we cannot guarantee

We cannot promise you a job. No honest bootcamp can. The job market has real variables: your location, your soft skills, how competitive your cohort's job market is, whether you actually put in the work during the programme, and whether the Kenyan tech market has a hiring slowdown while you are job-hunting.

We also cannot promise a specific salary. The KES 40,000 to 80,000 range is what we see in the market for junior developers, but your actual offer depends on the company, your negotiation, and your portfolio quality.

The non-financial return

This part is harder to quantify but worth mentioning. The McTaba community, the mentor relationships, the habit of shipping real projects, and the confidence that comes from deploying something that handles real M-Pesa transactions. These compound over your career in ways that do not show up in a simple cost-vs-salary spreadsheet.

We are not going to pretend KES 120,000 is a small amount of money. For many Kenyans, it is not. The question is whether the skills, network, and accelerated timeline are worth it compared to the alternatives. That is a personal calculation only you can make.

If the mctaba bootcamp price does not fit your budget today, that does not mean you are stuck. McTaba offers smaller courses that let you start learning immediately at a lower price point.

Tech Foundations: Before You Code (KES 2,999)

This is designed as a starting point. It covers the fundamentals you need before writing your first line of code: how the internet works, how software projects are structured, and what tools you need to set up. If you are unsure whether coding is for you, spend KES 2,999 and a weekend on this course before committing KES 120,000 to the marathon. Think of it as a low-risk way to test the water.

Full-Stack Software & AI Engineering (KES 120,000)

This is a self-paced alternative to the live marathon. The curriculum covers similar ground, but you move at your own speed without live instruction or a fixed cohort. At KES 120,000, it costs more than the bootcamp, but the flexibility suits people who cannot commit to a full-time schedule. If you are working a job and studying in evenings and weekends, this is the option to consider.

Deployment & Going Live (KES 4,999)

If you already know how to code but struggle with getting your projects live on the internet, this focused course covers deployment end to end. It is useful whether you learned through McTaba, another bootcamp, or on your own.

The free path

If even KES 2,999 is a stretch, start with free resources. freeCodeCamp, The Odin Project, and YouTube tutorials cost nothing. You will not get mentorship or project reviews, and the dropout rate is high, but the knowledge is genuinely available for free. If you go this route, the single most important thing you can do is find a study partner or a community (even an online one) to keep you accountable.

The maktaba cost might feel heavy today. But learning to code is one of those investments where the right time to start is as soon as possible, even if you start small. KES 2,999 for Tech Foundations is less than most people spend on data bundles in a month.