The cheapest way to hide TV wires on a wall is stick-on or screw-on PVC trunking painted the wall colour; the neatest is conduit chased into the wall before you mount. Either way, keep power cables and sockets to an electrician’s standard, and never bury an ordinary extension cable inside a wall.
Updated 30 October 2026.
Plan cable runs before mounting
Decide everything before the TV goes up, while you can still reach the wall. Our guides on mounting a TV on the wall and TV mount height cover the bracket itself.
- Count the cables: power, HDMI (decoder, console, streaming stick), aerial, LAN, and soundbar.
- Choose where they come out: usually straight down behind the TV to a cabinet below.
- Leave slack: a little extra length behind the TV lets you tilt or pull it out later.
- Add spares: one extra HDMI run now saves cutting the wall again.
Surface trunking (no wall cutting)
PVC trunking from any hardware shop is a plastic channel with a snap-on lid. A 2-metre length usually costs a few hundred shillings.
- Measure from the back of the TV to the cabinet or socket.
- Cut the trunking with a hacksaw.
- Fix it with the adhesive backing, or better, small screws and plugs on plaster or masonry; adhesive alone often drops off in heat or humidity.
- Lay the cables in and snap the lid on.
- Paint it the same colour as the wall so it disappears.
Flat “cord cover” channels and half-round floor covers work the same way. For a few cables, this is the quickest fix and needs no fundi.
In-wall conduit in masonry
Most Kenyan walls are stone or block, so hiding cables inside means cutting a channel (chasing).
- A fundi cuts a groove, lays PVC conduit with a pull wire, then plasters over.
- Fit a box with a blank plate or brush plate behind the TV and one near the cabinet.
- Use a conduit wide enough to pull new HDMI cables through later, plugs and all.
- Do it before painting, and before the TV is mounted.
This route suits signal cables (HDMI, aerial, LAN). Power is different.
Power: extension sockets and safety
- Don’t push an extension lead or the TV’s power cord through the wall. Those cables aren’t made to be buried, and a fault inside a wall can overheat unseen.
- The safe way to get power behind the TV is a proper socket outlet installed by an EPRA-licensed electrician, wired into the house circuit.
- Behind the cabinet, use a good surge-protected extension, not a cheap multi-plug, because power cuts and surges are common. Don’t daisy-chain extensions.
- Ask the electrician to keep power and signal cables in separate conduits.
Tidy behind the TV
- Use short or right-angle HDMI cables so plugs don’t push the TV off the wall.
- Bundle cables with Velcro straps, not tight cable ties.
- Stick small labels on each cable end.
- Put the soundbar’s cable in the same run; see connecting a soundbar to a TV.
Quick answers
Use PVC trunking or cord covers fixed to the wall and painted to match. Run them straight down to the cabinet.
Only as proper house wiring done by a licensed electrician. Never bury an extension lead or a plug-in power cord in the wall.
