Esen Africa was founded by Serah Njambi Kangethe in 2018. It started with importing clothes from Dubai which I mostly sold from the boot of my car/house until I opened a small store on Ngong road. One year later in 2019, I ventured into thrifted clothes which were mostly sold at pop – up markets around Nairobi. Soon after, my love for leather products gave birth to a leather line and the opening of a store in Westlands, Nairobi. Esen Africa was based there for a year+ then covid happened and we were forced to close down the store.

This ordeal really affected the business and we had to re-strategize. Part of this included stocking our products on consignment in a few stores around Nairobi. This helped us maintain visibility in the market while still participating in pop-up markets. Around this time, I made the decision to shift our focus on making all our products locally, making Esen Africa a made in Kenya brand.

In 2022 we managed to open our Gigiri store and by this point we had really increased our product line, which led to us opening our own workshop in Kibera Nairobi, which we still operate from to-date.