Kenyan buyers usually get a CIF Mombasa quotation and stop there. The four lines after it — IDF, RDL, VAT and the low-bed to Nairobi — add roughly a fifth again. Below is one new wheeled excavator, about 15 tonnes, HS 8429.52, walked from a Shandong factory to a yard in Nairobi. Every percentage and fee has its source on the right; the ex-works price is a placeholder for yours.
The line that surprises Kenyan buyers is not the duty — it is zero — but VAT on the whole CIF value, which on a machine this size is the largest number after the machine itself. Budget it before the deposit, not after the bill of lading. Importing something other than an excavator? The import duty & VAT calculator now carries Kenya — EAC duty by category, IDF, RDL and VAT on CIF.
Both are decided before the machine is loaded in China, not at the port.
A 15-tonne wheeled excavator is about 2.5 m wide and 3.1 m high — it will not go through a 40HQ door (2.58 m). That leaves a flat rack, which carries a surcharge of roughly half to one-and-a-half times the box rate, or RoRo, which is cheaper when a vessel is calling Mombasa that month. Ask for both quotes on the same day; the spread between them on this route has been USD 1,000–3,000.
Kenya requires a Certificate of Conformity under the PVoC scheme for used and new machinery. It is issued after an inspection at the loading port, costs a few hundred dollars, and the container will not clear at Mombasa without it. Book it when you book the vessel, not when the ship is at sea.
Holding a quotation and want this table redone with your machine, your port and your city? How we ship machinery from China — and what it costs