Exporting to Kenya

Exporting to Kenya is becoming a challenging exercise. What happens is this. Anyone who wants to import anything into Kenya has to open an IDF. The IDF details where the goods are coming from, who is supplying them and the tarriff headings. Some goods need pre-inspection: others do not. Goods that need to be pre-inspected have to go through the procedure of lodging their request for inspection and certification with the agency nominated by the Kenyan Government in the country of export. This is the procedure for today, by the way. It changes on a regular basis.

I have a customer in Kenya who is importing goods from both the UK and the USA. Luckily for me, the goods from the UK do not require pre-inspection so I don't have to deal with Intertek who do Kenyan inspections in the UK. Of all the goods being shipped from the USA only a piece of software which comes with its own computer does require inspection, which is dealt with by SGS. And this is where the challenges begin. The computer is made by Dell, who lets face it, have a pretty good reputation for supplying good quality equipment. However, even though Dell have given data sheets to us which indicate the standards to which their computers are made, SGS have indicated they are not satisfied. They have requested that we supply and I quote from their paperwork "ISO 9001:2000 Certificate, Declaration of Conformity complying to specific standards, manufacturer's test results or any document that would demonstrate product quality." This is a lot of paperwork and a lot of work for Dell to do in order to supply documentation for ONE computer. We are doubtful that we can get this documentation.

The customer also advised me that they had ordered some ink jet printers from South Africa. Intertek in South Africa refused to certify the shipment because they wanted documentation from the manufacturer (in Japan) stating the composition of the ink used in the printers. Apart from the fact this is confidential information, again, no-one is going to go to the extent of producing this paperwork for two ink jet printers worth about GBP 100.00!! My customer supplies printing equipment to the Kenyan Government. It is going to be interesting to see what happens when they want to purchase computers or ink cartridges in the next few weeks. Something tells me the procedures are going to change again.