Importing cooking oil into Kenya means importing into one of the country’s most politically and financially sensitive commodity categories — a staple so central to household budgets and food manufacturing that a single duty change has triggered public alarm, and so lucrative to misdeclare that Parliament is currently investigating an estimated KSh 64 billion tax evasion scheme at Mombasa Port built entirely around how palm oil shipments are classified.

Kenya’s Genuine Dependence on Imported Palm Oil

Kenya isn’t a meaningful palm oil producer — the country imports essentially all of its supply, accounting for over 90% of Kenya’s total oil and fat consumption. Import volumes have been on a genuine growth trajectory, forecast to reach 1.05 million tonnes for the 2025/2026 season, positioning Kenya among the world’s largest palm oil importers globally, and making it a significant regional transhipment hub as well — roughly 10% of Kenya’s imported supply is re-exported to neighbouring markets like Uganda, the DRC, and Rwanda. This scale is exactly why duty policy in this category carries such outsized economic and political weight.

This is the detail that sits at the centre of everything else in this article — Kenya’s duty rate on palm oil depends entirely on how refined the product is at the point of import:

Crude palm oil — historically 0% duty, though this changed to 10% in 2024 but nullified back to 0% in 2025 (covered below)
Semi-refined palm oil — 10% import duty
Refined edible palm oil — 35% import duty

This tiered structure exists to protect Kenya’s domestic refining industry — 13 edible oil manufacturing companies with a combined processing capacity of 2.18 million metric tonnes, generating over KSh 130 billion — by making it considerably cheaper to import unrefined crude oil for domestic processing than to import already-refined product ready for retail. It’s also exactly the structure that creates the incentive for the fraud covered below.

The 2024 Duty Change That Triggered a Price Spike

On 1 July 2024, Kenya applied a new 10% import duty on crude palm oil, ending its previous zero-rated status under a temporary stay of the EAC Common External Tariff. The Edible Oil Manufacturers Association of Kenya, representing the 13 domestic manufacturers, responded immediately and publicly — spokesperson Billow Kerrow (also proprietor of Darford Industries) reported a 20-litre container of edible oil rising from roughly KSh 3,800 to KSh 4,200 within weeks, and warned the change would push up prices of derivative products including soap, bread, mandazi, chapati, and margarine, given how central cooking oil is as a manufacturing input across the food sector. The association also argued the tax made Kenyan-refined edible oil uncompetitive against Malaysian imports in regional export markets, reporting they’d effectively lost their Uganda, DRC, and South Sudan export business as a direct result.

Subsequently, in late November 2025, this matter received a major relief when the High Court in Kenya declared the government’s decision to impose a 10 per cent import duty on crude palm oil unconstitutional. Justice Mwamuye noted that the imposition of the duty had immediate and far-reaching consequences for consumers, particularly because palm oil is a key raw material in the manufacture of cooking oil and other household products. The judge found that the State had bypassed critical procedural steps required under Articles 10, 201 and 209 of the Constitution, as well as the Statutory Instruments Act, which mandate transparency, accountability and public involvement before any policy with fiscal implications is implemented.

The KSh 64 Billion Misdeclaration Scheme

This is genuinely serious and actively under parliamentary investigation as of recent reporting: Kenya’s National Assembly Finance Committee has been probing a large-scale tax evasion scheme at Mombasa Port, specifically involving misdeclaration of refined edible palm oil as crude palm oil to exploit the lower duty tier. The mechanism alleged is specific — blending 60% crude palm oil with 40% refined palm olein, then declaring the entire blended shipment as crude, allowing importers to avoid the considerably higher 35% refined-product duty rate entirely. Investigators have specifically named a multinational agricultural giant company as implicated in misdeclaring shipments on behalf of clients across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. The investigation, launched roughly two years ago after intelligence suggested the government was losing significant revenue through this practice, has faced real obstacles — former KRA Commissioner General Humphrey Wattanga failed to appear for scheduled testimony, and as of the most recent reporting, the committee’s work remained stalled.

Why Correct Classification Matters More in This Category Than Almost Any Other

Given how actively this specific fraud pattern is under government scrutiny right now, palm oil and cooking oil shipments are almost certainly facing heightened inspection scrutiny at Mombasa Port compared to a typical commodity import. For a legitimate importer, this means:

Accurate declaration of your product’s actual refinement level matters more than ever, given the active investigation into exactly this misclassification pattern
Expect closer inspection and potential testing to verify declared classification matches the actual product, particularly for shipments declared as crude
Blended or partially processed products sit in genuinely ambiguous territory that’s worth confirming explicitly with KRA or KEBS guidance before shipping, rather than assuming a classification that happens to minimise duty

Standard Documentation Still Applies

Beyond the duty classification question, cooking oil imports carry the same standard requirements covered in our broader food and beverage import guide — KEBS certification and PVoC inspection, the Import Standardization Mark, and standard levies including IDF (2.5%), RDL, and VAT (16%) applied on top of whichever duty tier your product’s genuine classification falls under.

Getting Cooking Oil Import Classification Right

Given the scale of the active fraud investigation in this exact category, this is a product where getting your classification genuinely, verifiably correct — not just favourable — protects you from being caught up in scrutiny aimed at a very real, very large ongoing enforcement action, regardless of your own compliance history.

At Clearon Logistics, we help cooking oil and palm oil importers confirm accurate product classification and prepare documentation that clearly supports the genuine refinement level of their shipment — precisely the kind of diligence that matters most in a category currently under this much active government attention.

Importing cooking oil or palm oil into Kenya? Talk to Clearon Logistics to confirm accurate classification before your shipment reaches Mombasa Port.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the current duty rate on crude palm oil imported into Kenya? 0%, following the high court nullification of the 10% change introduced in 1 July 2024.

Why does refined palm oil face a much higher duty rate than crude? The tiered structure (0% crude, 35% refined) is designed to protect Kenya’s domestic refining industry by making it more economical to import unrefined product for local processing than to import already-refined product.

What is the KSh 64 billion palm oil investigation actually about? A parliamentary probe into alleged large-scale misdeclaration of refined palm oil as crude palm oil at Mombasa Port — specifically blending crude with refined product and declaring the mixture as crude to avoid the higher duty tier.

Does this investigation mean legitimate cooking oil importers face extra scrutiny? Likely yes — given the scale and active nature of this specific fraud investigation, shipments in this category are reasonably likely to face heightened inspection, making accurate, well-documented classification more important than ever.