How to Import from China to Kenya: The Complete 2026 Guide

Every week another Nairobi retailer works out that the same goods cost a third of the local price in Guangzhou, and starts asking how to import from China to Kenya. The mechanics are not complicated, but they are unforgiving: a wrong HS code, a supplier who cannot produce a Certificate of Conformity, or a container sitting at Mombasa past its free storage days will erase a margin that looked healthy on the quotation. Here is the full chain, with realistic numbers. Budget six to nine weeks door to door for a first sea shipment: sourcing and sampling, two to four weeks of production, 25 to 40 days on the water, then clearing and delivery.

Start with the HS code, standards and permits

Before you negotiate a single dollar, find the tariff code for your product. Kenya applies the East African Community Common External Tariff, which has four main bands: 0% for most raw materials and capital goods, 10% for intermediate goods, 25% for finished goods, and a 35% band for sensitive products the region already manufactures. A charger, a hair dryer and a steel sink can each sit in a different band, so have a licensed clearing agent confirm the code in writing before you order.

Two other checks belong here:

• KEBS conformity. Most consumer and electrical goods fall under the Pre-Export Verification of Conformity programme: the shipment is inspected and tested in China by a KEBS-appointed agency and a Certificate of Conformity issued before departure. Arriving without one means destination inspection, delay, and a penalty commonly quoted at 15% of customs value.
• Permits. Food and cosmetics involve KEBS and Port Health, medical products the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, radio equipment Communications Authority type approval. These take days or weeks.

Find and shortlist suppliers

Made-in-China, Alibaba and Global Sources are the standard starting points for export-ready factories. 1688 is the Chinese domestic platform and usually 20 to 40% cheaper, but listings are in Chinese and you need someone on the ground to buy from it. Cluster geography matters too: Shenzhen for electronics, Guangzhou for apparel and cosmetics, Foshan for furniture, Yiwu for small consumer goods, Ningbo for hardware.

Shortlist five to eight suppliers and send them all the identical brief: product, specification, quantity, target unit price, destination Mombasa, and the certification you need. Judge the replies on how precisely they answer, not just price. If you would rather not run this yourself, Shopbuddy's managed sourcing service is free: send a photo, video or link and we find matching factories, negotiate and come back with quotes.

Samples and specifications

Never order from photographs. Pay for samples, typically US$20 to US$150 per item plus US$40 to US$120 courier to Nairobi, arriving in three to seven days. Good suppliers credit the cost against the first order.

Test the sample the way your customer will: measure it, weigh it, plug it in, wash it. Then write a one-page specification covering materials, dimensions and tolerances, colour references, packaging and carton markings. Sign and photograph a retained "golden sample" and state in the purchase order that production must match it. That document is what makes a claim possible later. Ask for existing test reports too; a supplier with none has probably never exported to a regulated market.

Price, Incoterms and payment terms

Agree the Incoterm explicitly. FOB at a named Chinese port is the usual choice for Kenyan buyers because you control the freight and see the real cost. EXW looks cheapest but puts Chinese inland trucking and export clearance on you. CIF Mombasa hands freight to the supplier, who often marks it up. DDP door-to-door quotes are convenient, but ask in writing whether duty and VAT are included; "all-in" usually means everything except taxes.

On payment, 30% deposit with the balance against a copy of the bill of lading is the market standard. Never pay 100% in advance to a new supplier, and above roughly US$50,000 a letter of credit at sight is worth the bank charges. Always pay to a corporate account whose name matches the supplier's business licence; payments to a personal account, or to a third party introduced late in the deal, are the most common way importers lose deposits. Shopbuddy holds payments in escrow and releases them only on the agreed milestone.

Sea or air freight to Mombasa

Sea is the default. Port-to-port transit from South China to Mombasa runs roughly 25 to 40 days, depending on the service and whether the vessel transships through Salalah, Jebel Ali or Colombo. Add a week for consolidation.

• LCL (loose cargo) suits anything under about 12 to 15 CBM. Consolidated all-in rates to Nairobi commonly land between KSh 45,000 and KSh 70,000 per CBM, covering freight, clearing and delivery but not duty and VAT.
• FCL is cheaper per unit above that: a 20ft container holds roughly 26 to 28 CBM of stackable goods, a 40ft high cube around 65 to 68.
• Air freight takes five to twelve days door to door and typically costs KSh 1,400 to KSh 2,000 per kg consolidated, several times sea on a per-kilo basis. Airlines charge on the greater of actual and volumetric weight, the latter being length by width by height in centimetres divided by 6,000.

Rates move with the season: expect increases before Chinese New Year and in the August to October peak, and treat any quote older than two weeks as indicative. Add marine insurance at 0.3 to 0.6% of CIF.

Clearing through KRA at Mombasa

You need a KRA PIN and, in practice, a licensed clearing agent, because customs entries are lodged in iCMS and agents hold the licence to do it.

They will need the commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading or air waybill, certificate of origin, Certificate of Conformity, import declaration, insurance certificate and any permits. Check the draft bill of lading before it is issued: consignee and description errors cost amendment fees and days.

Send documents to your agent five to seven days before the vessel arrives. Containers get a limited free storage window, after which port storage and shipping-line demurrage accrue daily. Cargo may be scanned or physically verified before release for road or rail transport to Nairobi.

How to import from China to Kenya without guessing your landed cost

Taxes are calculated on the customs value, which is CIF Mombasa: goods plus freight plus insurance. Work in this order:

1. Customs value = FOB price + freight + insurance
2. Import duty = customs value times the CET rate (0, 10, 25 or 35%)
3. Import Declaration Fee, about 2.5% of customs value, subject to a minimum charge
4. Railway Development Levy, about 2% of customs value
5. Excise duty, if your product attracts it
6. VAT at 16% on customs value plus duty plus IDF plus RDL plus excise
7. Then add agent fees, port and terminal charges, container deposit, inland transport and bank charges

A worked example. Garments at FOB US$4,000 with freight and insurance of US$900 give a customs value of US$4,900. Duty at 25% is US$1,225, IDF about US$123, RDL about US$98, and VAT is 16% of US$6,346, or US$1,015. Taxes total roughly US$2,461, about 50% on top of CIF. Add US$400 to US$600 for clearing and delivery to Nairobi and your landed cost is near US$7,800 on a US$4,000 factory price: close to double FOB, before any margin.

Run this on every enquiry. Shopbuddy's landed-cost calculator does it against the current duty band and levies, so you see the Nairobi warehouse price before paying a deposit.

Mistakes that quietly kill margins

• Pricing your product off the FOB quote instead of the landed cost
• Asking the supplier to undervalue the invoice; KRA uses valuation databases, uplifts the value and adds penalties, and your insurance cover goes with it
• Shipping regulated goods without a Certificate of Conformity
• Ignoring the free-storage clock at Mombasa
• Committing to a full container of something you have never sold

A realistic first-import plan

Pick one product you already know sells. Confirm its HS code and whether it needs a Certificate of Conformity. Get quotes from five factories, buy three samples, then place a small LCL trial order of one to three CBM on 30/70 terms with an inspection before shipment. Track every cost line so the second order is priced from your own data. The first shipment is tuition: keep it small enough that the lesson is affordable, and documented well enough that you never pay twice.