How to Send Goods to Kenya from UK

Are you looking to send goods to Kenya from the UK? The choice of whether to send goods by air or sea usually comes down to a question of time versus money. Airfreight is obviously much faster but can be quite expensive especially for bulky items. Sea/Marine freight on the other hand is much cheaper but it takes several weeks for the goods to reach the port of Mombasa which may not be good if your goods are perishable.

One you settle on the method you want to use, the following information will prove useful:

UK Clearing and Forwarding

The first step is to identify a clearing and forwarding agent in the UK. Cargo Yellow Pages has a good directory of UK Freight Forwarders, Cargo Agents, Shipping, Forwarding Companies for Air Cargo and Sea Freight.

Kenyan Duty Payable

Find out the amount of duty payable on your goods once they reach Kenya. The information changes every so often and an updated copy is always available in the East African Common External Tariff Handbook. This is a comprehensive guide to the tariff rates uniformly applied by the East African customs union, to imports from countries outside the East African Community. You can download a copy here.

For more information on general Kenyan import rules and requirements, please read our article, How to import goods in Kenya.