Nairobi shopping runs on two tracks: air-conditioned malls stocked with Kenyan designers, and open-air markets where kiondo baskets and mitumba bales are haggled over in Sheng. Three days covering bead cooperatives, glass studios and the Ngong Road market belt.
Nairobi's roving craft market lands on Kijabe Street every Tuesday, 08:00–17:00: beaded sandals, soapstone bowls, kanga cloth and Turkana baskets spread on tarpaulins. Opening prices run three to four times the fair rate.
Kariokor, off Racecourse Road, is where the sisal kiondo is actually woven — rows of stalls sell hand-twisted baskets, leather sandals cut from truck tyres and beaded belts. Open 08:00–18:00, closed Sunday, cash only.
Kazuri ('small and beautiful' in Swahili) opened in 1975 with two single mothers and now employs around 340 women who hand-roll and paint every clay bead. Free factory tours run through the day, 08:00–17:00 weekdays.
Eleven curio shops fill a converted Bogani East Road house, each rented by a different trader, so stock swings from Congolese masks to carved Lamu doors and Ethiopian crosses. Prices are labelled, so no haggling. Open 09:30–18:00.
Gigiri's terraced mall holds roughly 150 shops, and the Friday Maasai Market takes over its lower car park from 08:00 to 18:00. Kenyan labels including Vivo Activewear and Sandstorm's canvas-and-leather bags trade alongside the craft stalls.
A fair-trade workshop where refugee women from Sudan, Rwanda and Somalia sew quilts, aprons and kitenge bags; the shop floor opens straight onto the sewing room, so you watch the work being made. Open 09:00–17:00, Monday to Saturday.
On Sarit Centre's first floor since the 1990s, Banana Box buys direct from more than 200 Kenyan craft groups: recycled-glass beads, banana-fibre cards, olive-wood servers and Kisii soapstone, all price-tagged. Open 09:00–19:00 daily.
The Alchemist's Westlands courtyard doubles as a design market: shipping-container studios selling screen-printed tees, Nairobi-made sneakers, vinyl and jewellery, with DJs from early evening and food trucks along the back wall.
Nani Croze's studio above the Athi River blows recycled bottles into glassware, beads and mosaic panels; the mosaic-covered buildings and swinging bridge justify the 45-minute drive alone. Open 09:00–17:00, seconds sold cheap.
Around forty resident artists work in studios ringing a Ngong Road courtyard — batik, wood carving, beadwork and canvas — and sell straight from the bench, so a piece can be commissioned in the morning and collected days later.
Wedged between Kibera and Ngong Road, Toi is Nairobi's mitumba engine: bales of second-hand European clothing cut open at dawn, plus fabric, shoes and camping gear. Monday and Thursday are fresh-bale days.
Behind Kenyatta Market's nyama choma grills runs a row of tailors and kitenge sellers who will cut a shirt or dress from six yards of wax print in about a day, alongside stalls of secondhand denim and hair salons.