Register to make or sell scales, approve a workshop or get a pattern approval (Weights and Measures)
Weights and Measures Department · sources read 4 Oct 2026
If you make or sell weighing or measuring equipment, register with the national Weights and Measures Department (KSh 1,000). Repairers need an approved workshop and licensed technicians, and new scale models need pattern approval.
- Fee
- KSh 1,000Registration of sellers/manufacturers of weighing and measuring equipmentKSh 1,000Approval of a repair workshop
- How long
- About 1 week for registration as a seller or manufacturer (and for workshop approval); 1 to 6 months for pattern approval
- Deadline
- New businesses: apply for registration within 90 days of starting to make or sell weighing equipment
- Where
- By formal application to the national Weights and Measures Department, State Department for Trade (Telposta Towers, 18th Floor, Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi; ps.trade@trade.go.ke)
What you need
- To register as a seller or manufacturer: a formal application, the filled application form, your contract with a licensed technical company, company registration documents, copies of technician licences, and workshop approval from Weights and Measures and OSHA
- For workshop approval: a formal application, a fully equipped workshop, copies of technician licences, OSHA workshop registration, company registration and business permit
Steps
- If you repair or service equipment, get your workshop approved first (KSh 1,000). Your technicians need licences too.
- Send a formal application with the filled form and documents to register as a seller or manufacturer, and pay KSh 1,000. It takes about 1 week.
- For a new model of scale or meter, apply for pattern (type) approval with full details of the equipment.
- Before you sell or return any instrument you made or repaired, take it to an inspector for verification and stamping.
Watch out
- Pattern approval fees depend on the equipment's capacity, from KSh 4,000 to KSh 40,000.
- Making or selling scales without registering, or repairing them without a repairer's licence, is an offence.
- Stamping scales already in use in shops is done by your county Weights and Measures office, not this department.
Who can apply
- Anyone in, or planning to start, the business of making or selling weights, measures or weighing and measuring instruments
- Repairers of weighing and measuring equipment used in trade, who are licensed at national level
Official sources (2)
- Weights & Measures (incl. Service Charter tab) trade.go.ke · read 4 Oct 2026
- Weights and Measures Act, Cap. 513 (Rev. 2012), incl. Weights and Measures Rules Part XXVI trade.go.ke · read 4 Oct 2026