Why Kenya should localise consumer protection mechanisms in major cities

Kenya is rapidly urbanising and experiencing an increase in consumer demand and economic activity supported by an ever-growing reliance on e-commerce platforms.

While this transformation begets various opportunities, it exposes consumers to more risks of infringements of their rights, such as fraud and misleading market conduct by businesses out to make a sale. This reality calls for robust and localised consumer protection mechanisms.

The National e-Commerce Strategy indicates that e-commerce usage in the Kenya is primarily an urban phenomenon, concentrated in cities. Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya indicate that there were 42.35 million smartphone users in Kenya as of March 2025, compared to 32.5 million feature phone owners. Despite the high number of smartphone users, the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) received about 700 consumer complaints in the financial year ended June 2025.

Published reports by other regulatory agencies with consumer protection mandates reveals a similar disconnect. The widespread use of smartphones, especially outside Nairobi, could have enabled consumers in other regions to lodge complaints with the CAK more easily, leading to a more representative case load.

One argument that has been advanced to explain this disconnect is that a significant portion of the population relies on feature phones with limited functionalities, including internet access. As a result, they cannot lodge complaints electronically and are unable to cost-effectively submit complaints in person since they live far from the capital city. Their only option is to call or, unfortunately, make the expensive trip to Nairobi.

Given that the digitisation of organisational operations is now widespread, this group is at risk of becoming increasingly powerless in the face of errant businesses.

To help ameliorate this situation, there is a need for an enhanced, localised and accessible consumer welfare framework to provide sustained attention toward empowering consumers and inculcating a commercial culture where the consumer is truly king, a not only so in a platitude.

Such a framework should not only prioritise advocacy, but also ensure that businesses breaching the law, especially repeat and egregious offenders, are held accountable in a manner that is punitively penalises their wrong and dissuades those with similar persuasions to change tack.

Today’s unflattering reality is that, despite the existence of various consumer protection laws, a majority of consumers remain unaware of their rights, responsibilities, and formal complaint channels. As a result, many resort to shaming errant businesses on social media, hoping this tactic will scare them into correcting the wrong, or that the complaint will be picked up by a relevant agency.

Expanding the CAK’s presence into various urban or regional centres would make it easier for consumers to access information as well as lodge complaints and ensure that educational campaigns are tailored to local communities.

The writer is a research and policy analyst at the CAK.