We are a family-owned online marketplace that serves as a one-stop-shop for all your vegan needs. We are committed to taking the guesswork out of label reading by doing it for you. All our products are 100% vegan so you can be free to shop knowing that none of your items have any sneaky ingredients!
Frequently Asked Questions
We are an online only marketplace, which means we do not have a physical location where customers can visit nor do we have a collect-goods service. Our online model allows you to free up your own time by shopping from any browser and simply waiting to receive your products right at your door.
We are dedicated to promoting Veganism in Kenya and we encourage local manufacturers to include vegan Kenyan-made products in their commercial offerings. However, manufacturing dedicated vegan products in Kenya is still something very new to the market and only small scale cottage businesses are doing it. There are only a couple of large manufacturing industries that have added a vegan product or two but as a country we are just not there yet.
To fill this void, we import from other countries who have made and perfected vegan products for decades. We bring the world closer to you by stocking these items and making sure that they are of high quality.
Vegan Kenya is committed to stocking products that match our core values and ethos. Those values are 100% Vegan, Cruelty-Free and Organic products, which means we are looking at premium brands. We strive to offer 100% GMO-free products.
On the local side, we do not have standardized labelling for GMO-free products, but we hear this is in the works. Our local vendors must make sure that their raw materials are organic or as close to nature as possible.
These items are what we call “accidentally vegan” products. These products are naturally vegan, which means they do not use ANY animal products or derivatives/additives. For instance, a product like natural peanut butter made from one ingredient, “roasted peanuts” is accidentally vegan.
The best way to reach us is via email, contact form or the chat message box on the bottom right corner on this site. As an online store, everything you need to complete an order is detailed here. We do not currently have the capacity to offer phone support.
We are an online store so all orders and transactions are handled through our website www.vegankenya.com! Click on “Shop” to go through the entire catalogue. When you see a product you like click on “Add to Cart” and Continue Shopping to add other items to your cart. When ready to purchase, click on “Proceed to Checkout”. Enter your contact and complete delivery details and proceed to pay via Mpesa Express (STK Push)
We only accept Mpesa Express payments at this time. We are working on accepting credit cards and PayPal.
We use an automated payment processing known as “Mpesa Express” which you can read about here. It’s a faster and safer system because you don’t have to remember Paybill numbers or account numbers (or worse, pay the wrong person). When you enter your Safaricom number, the payment is automatically pushed to your phone (aka STK Push) and all you have to do is enter your private PIN.
No. Our couriers do not have climate-controlled warehouse facilities nor are their delivery trucks equipped do deal with frozen/chilled items. Butter, Cheese, Faux Meats and Ice-cream products can only be delivered to NAIROBI.
We are trying to work on a solution for this!
Yes! First time customers who spend 2000/- can use the code NEWB10 for 10% off their first order, rejoice!
No. We do not offer wholesale services as we are a retail outlet. However, we don’t typically place limits on the number of products you can order from the store. Our store has inventory management systems so all quantities available online are correct.
If you have an issue while ordering or need general help please email us anytime via sales@vegankenya.com.
At designated times of the day, we are also available via live online chat or (chat box at the bottom right hand corner of your screen). When we are not live you can use the chat form to send us a message directly from the site.
No. This feature is not available at present. We use an inventory management system that is tied to our payment gateway so it doesn’t allow that option.
We will occasionally offer items for sale throughout the year. We know you work hard for your money so sales are a good way to get that item you have been eyeing!
Some items on sale are those that are close to their ‘best by’ dates (we set these items to go on sale 3 weeks to their best by dates). Because a good number of our products are imported, it helps to understand what these terms mean:
- A “Best if Used By/Before” date indicates when a product will be of best flavor or quality. It is not a purchase or safety date.
- A “Sell-By” date tells the store how long to display the product for sale for inventory management. It is not a safety date.
- A “Use-By” date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality. It is not a safety date except for when used on infant formula.
- A “Freeze-By” date indicates when a product should be frozen to maintain peak quality. It is not a purchase or safety date
Resources: https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep-food-safe/foodkeeper-app and https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2014/08/19/save-money-knowing-when-food-safe
Yes, and we welcome them! We are a store for vegans by vegans and we want to make sure you can find all your favourite products. Shoot us an email over on sales@vegankenya.com or use the contact form on our website.
We stock a variety of vegan goods and we have tagged each product with common allergens. Simply use our robust search button and type out what you are looking for be it “gluten free” or “soy free” or “non gmo” etc.
Bummer! We try hard to balance in-stock quantities and shelf life but sometimes it is difficult to judge how popular any item is going to be. We offer an automated email service to notify you immediately a product is back in stock. Simply enter your email in the box under the description of the specific product “email me once product is available” and click to subscribe to the alert.
Once logged into your account, click on the product you purchased and want to review, scroll down to “Reviews” and click on it. Type in your comments in the box that opens and select “Submit” once finished.
Tip for reviews: Leave relevant information once you have tried/used the product – about what you liked or what you did not. That way, it will be a constructive review for another customer who is relying on reviews to make a decision. Reviews regarding delivery or other issues should not be left under a product review, instead please send us an email so we can correct it. We can’t wait to check out your reviews!
Some products have cross contamination warnings, which we include on our website where we can! This simply means that the factory where the product was manufactured, also handles other non-vegan products (not that the specific product contains that item(s)). This is a worldwide industry practice. For instance, a chocolatier who makes regular milk chocolate with nuts, may also offer a vegan chocolate so their product will contain a tag that says “May contain traces of milk and nuts”. This tag is usually to warn those with severe allergies that the facility handles these allergens. If you have an allergy and you want to double check a product, please check the description box for the tag or feel free to contact us at sales@vegankenya.com
We follow The Vegan Society’s stance on palm oil, which means we view palm oil as a vegan product in and of itself. We are aware that some of our customers prefer to avoid palm oil where possible, so we’re working on also reducing products with palm oil. If we can find an alternative product without palm oil, we will re-stock with that one. In the meantime, check the description box for the ingredients list.
The Vegan Society’s full stance below:
In itself, palm oil is a vegetable product which does not need to involve the (ab)use of animals, and therefore is suitable for vegans. The palm oil and palm timber industries are rife with very bad practices. In the EU, palm oil used in food must now be labelled, but ingredients derived from palm oil in food and non-food products still do not have to be labelled. So it is not possible for consumers to boycott palm products. Instead, ending the abuses of the palm tree (oil and timber) industries requires co-ordinated action by consumers, policymakers, vegans and non-vegans together.
Vegans should also be aware that due the fact that single-issue campaigns have focused solely on the negative effects of palm oil, other types of crop farming, which cause harm to many animals, are overlooked. The Vegan Society is working towards a world where animals are not (ab)used for human purposes. We encourage stock-free farming and alternatives to widespread crop clearance and other farming methods which currently cause many animals to die every year. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible or practical for individual vegans to only support vegan farming. However, the consumption of plant-based crops such as wheat, barley, oil palm and soybeans causes far fewer animals to lose their lives than eating animals
We dispatch orders received Monday to Friday, next day. Per our Service Level Agreement (SLA) our orders ship out within 1-2 days. Most orders within Kenya typically deliver within 24 hours (next day delivery). Sometimes we have to re-stock a local product due to accidental in-house damage/errors the item may take an extra day.
Orders received over the weekend are shipped out on Monday.
Please enter your delivery locations in FULL. If you live in an area that has confusing directions please use the notes field to add details that will help out our couriers. If you enter incomplete addresses that cannot be seen on Google we may have to cancel your order.
We currently ship to major cities in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda via Fargo Courier, our preferred partner. In certain cases we may use Modern Courier. If you are ordering outside Nairobi, you will pick up your order at the designated hubs of the courier companies.
No. At this time we do not offer rush services, only next day or second day delivery. We use a delivery courier service and cannot give you exact times of delivery. Most of our orders are completed by noon.
Additionally, you must ensure that you have someone at the specified delivery location who has been notified of our delivery or who can accept the delivery on your behalf. Not doing so needlessly delays consequent customer deliveries.
Once your order is submitted, you’ll receive an Mpesa confirmation text message from Safaricom. Simultaneously you’ll be directed to a confirmation page with your order number and you’ll also receive an automated email confirmation saying that we have received your order.
On the morning your order is scheduled for delivery, you’ll receive an email saying your order is complete. You can reference your placed orders and their status at any time by visiting the “Orders” page on your account.
Please login to your account and visit the My Account page. There, you can update all of your account information, including your email and shipping addresses. Enter your addresses as specifically as possible including names of residences, estates, office buildings and numbers so that our delivery partners can find you easily. Please refer to our Privacy Policy to understand how your personal information is handled on this site.
We are unable to make changes to your order, including modifying contents, quantities and shipping address, once it has been placed. Due to the urgency of next day delivery you must email us as soon as possible by responding to your order confirmation email and instruct us to “CANCEL” your order. There are two ways we can handle this:
- Issue a refund within 24 hours to customer’s number on file.
- Give store credit for the same amount. Store credit is displayed on your Dashboard page in “My Account”. When you click the store credit coupon link you will see the Coupon Code to use at checkout and the credit amount.
If you are not satisfied with your purchase, you can return the item(s) to us in their original packaging, unopened and undamaged, with all original tags/labels attached. Please notify us via email ASAP or within 7 days of receiving your order. Read our Return Policy. Please note that certain merchandise is NOT eligible for return including:
- Perishable Items
- Intimate or sanitary goods
- Personal care items & cosmetics
- Final sale items
We’re always on the lookout for new, high-quality products and brands that share our values. If you would like to partner with Vegan Kenya, please submit your information for review by filling in the form on the Vendor tab on our website.
If you want to become a supplier with us, the starting point is to determine if your product meets our company ethos. As a 100% vegan business, we only stock products that are 100% plant based (excluding meat, eggs, dairy, honey and all animal ingredients/derivatives), and cruelty-free (not tested on animals). If your product meets these standards, we can consider stocking your product. Once this dialogue is open, we will request additional information from you to ascertain your suitability.
If you have a market day at your institution where you would like us to exhibit and sell our products please write to janette@vegankenya.com
As an online store we rarely get to meet our lovely customers. We plan to remedy that at least 4 times a year by attending local pop ups, which will be announced on all our social platforms.