Clearing your belongings through customs in Kenya

Complete disaster.
We shipped in from Portugal via Mombasa to Nairobi.
I watched the packing process in Portugal and everything was fine. Our shipping should have arrived no more than 6 weeks later...
5 months later it eventually did. the load had arrived as scheduled and then sat, accruing 45 USD a day 'holding fee' whilst the 'paperwork was sorted out. We were never informed directly as to what the problem was, just that we had to keep paying for 'additional costs, (not including the holding fee). This part eventually cost us three times what we had been quoted.
When the load finally arrived and the security tag was removed with great fanfare, (which really made me consider that it had been placed on just down the road), the first thing we saw was a wooden bookcase with the back kicked out. And it went down hill from there.
A conservative estimate is around 8,000 USD theft, vandalism and breakage. It was possible to open the top of a box and look into see how somebody had ripped open the side and rummaged around.
Please contact me if you would like to see a fully documented unpacking and recording of this disaster, with photographs and notation.
The company handling the Kenyan end insisted that it had all happened in Portugal, even though I had pictures of the loading, sealing and placement shipboard. So our compensation claim was never actioned. So DO NOT USE FRIENDS REMOVAL  or any associated company.
The whole process was a farce and I would not recommend anybody to bring any goods into Kenya via Mombasa. If you can not pack it in your suitcases, store it.
Everything was fine until the shipping container arrived at Mombasa.
You have been warned

We have successfully shipped two containers (UK to Mombasa), each with a vehicle and various household effects.  No theft and no problems.

Kenyan law does require you to have a shipping agent in Mombasa to handle the clearance of the goods.  If you don't have one, then that tends to be where containers are held at the port.  It is therefore vital to shop around and do your homework before choosing a shipping agent.  You cant clear the goods yourself.

On both occasions, we chose an agent in the UK that partnered with a shipping agent in Mombasa.  We approached proper shipping companies, not removals companies and in that way had greater control of the process.

For the first shipment, we paid extra for the container to be brought on the train to Nairobi and cleared there, then transported to our home.  The second shipment, we went to Mombasa and drove back with everything.

You may be told shipping takes 6 weeks, but don't hold your breath.  Our first container took around 3.5 months and the second one about 4 months.  This is due to the availability of sailings and bad weather.  The only way you are going to get your stuff quickly and by an agreed date is via air freight, which is costly indeed.

Then there's the duty and various taxes and charges, which tend to make up around 75% of the value of the shipment.  The duty payment is, for many enough to make them think twice about shipping to Kenya.

Unless you are particularly attached to your belongings, it may make more sense to buy furniture and electrical in Kenya - there isn't much that you can't get there.

Hi Longonot,

I am currently in the UK talking to relocators and to shipping companies.  The latter seems like a good option until I start contacting Kenya Clearing and Forwarding agents who hear a foreign voice calling from the UK and come up with really hilarious costings (like double the cost of the shipping to clear and forward to Nairobi).

Do you fancy/can you reveal who your UK agent was?

Thanks

The second company was Maina, based in Southall.  I can't recall the first one. 

I don't understand why you are arranging the clearing agent in Kenya and being quoted separately.  The shipping company you approach in the UK should arrange this and give you a quotation for the whole package.

For us on both occasions clearing in Kenya was arranged by the shipping agent in the UK and the price we paid in the UK was inclusive of clearing services in Kenya, but obviously not taxes/duty.

Thanks Longonot,

i just spoke to Maina and curiously, they said we would have to make our own local arrangements as regards customs clearance, although they are going to provide me with some contacts.

The only reason that we are seeking to contract with different operators for different parts of the job, is that the "full service" route seems to be prohibitively expensive. 

Yes - with the money that we save on shipping we could buy stuff locally, but what about things that have other than monetary value?  I could buy lots of books, but they wouldn't be the same collection.

The whole thing is a very  unpleasant experience in which you just feel that they have got you over a barrel (especially once the container is sitting in customs at Mombasa.

The first time, we paid for the full door to door service.  Sure it was expensive, but we got what we paid for; packing, loading, shipping, clearing and delivery of all our goods (undamaged)  to our home in Nairobi.  It was stressful enough simply organising ourselves, so to have someone to completely remove the headache of shipping the household goods was great.  The other thing to bear in mind is that when we did this we were also operating under 'returning resident' rules, for my wife, so there was very little duty to be paid.