Trade lanes

What Kenya buys, and from whom.

Kenya imported USD 15bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 2 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 2 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.

Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.

By source

The twenty countries Kenya imports most from.

A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what Kenya is best placed to make itself, see Made here: Kenya.

  1. 1

    China

    Share of Kenya's imports40 per cent
    Changeup 8 per cent on 2022
    USD 6.0bnin 2024
  2. 2

    India

    Share of Kenya's imports12 per cent
    Changedown 14 per cent on 2022
    USD 1.7bnin 2024
  3. 3

    Japan

    Share of Kenya's imports6 per cent
    Changelevel with 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 849min 2024
  4. 4

    United States

    Share of Kenya's imports4 per cent
    Changeup 54 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 557min 2024
  5. 5

    South Africa

    Share of Kenya's imports3 per cent
    Changedown 12 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 393min 2024
  6. 6

    United Kingdom

    Share of Kenya's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 4 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 337min 2024
  7. 7

    Saudi Arabia

    Share of Kenya's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 4 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 315min 2024
  8. 8

    United Arab Emirates

    Share of Kenya's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 34 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 314min 2024
  9. 9

    Germany

    Share of Kenya's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 10 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 301min 2024
  10. 10

    Egypt

    Share of Kenya's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 22 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 291min 2024
  11. 11

    Turkey

    Share of Kenya's imports2 per cent
    Changedown 7 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 224min 2024
  12. 12

    Tanzania

    Share of Kenya's imports2 per cent
    Changeup 19 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 219min 2024
  13. 13

    France

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 9 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 204min 2024
  14. 14

    Uganda

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 21 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 193min 2024
  15. 15

    Thailand

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 12 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 178min 2024
  16. 16

    Italy

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 32 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 169min 2024
  17. 17

    South Korea

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 35 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 165min 2024
  18. 18

    Netherlands

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 2 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 165min 2024
  19. 19

    Morocco

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changeup 8 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 143min 2024
  20. 20

    Indonesia

    Share of Kenya's imports1 per cent
    Changedown 34 per cent on 2022
    Lane pageunder the lane threshold
    USD 126min 2024
What this record says

What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.

Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.

Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to Kenya with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.

Share is China's part of everything Kenya imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.

Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.

What it does not say

A record of trade, not a shopping list.

What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.

Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.