Out of a desire to give back to the community of Nairobi, Kilele - meaning summit or mountain peak in Swahili - was founded to provide steady uplifting jobs and instill eternal values in local impoverished communities. We exist to leverage quality gear and fair prices to create sustained economic empowerment.

Kilele was established in 2019 with two foundational goals.
1. To handmake leather gear with peak quality and design.
2. To have an eternal impact on our neighborhood in Nairobi and across the globe.

Our name, Kilele, means “summit” or “peak” in the Swahili language and was chosen because of our goal to deliver the highest quality products. In our earliest days, we had products custom made in one of Nairobi’s outdoor artisan markets and have progressed to having our own workshop where we can control the quality from start to finish.

We are located in Pangani, one of Nairobi’s most diverse neighborhoods with many challenges. At Kilele we are working with multiple partners to be a blessing to the community and find ways to love our neighbor in sustainable, practical ways.

At Kilele, we believe that every person and venture has a purpose that exceeds the temporal ups and downs we feel day to day. We strive to follow the biblical principle of loving your neighbor as yourself and we seek to apply this to those around us in Nairobi. We pursue this through the creation of jobs and partnering with other groups to provide food distributions and annual medical camps to serve the most vulnerable in our community. Kilele believes that faith has a vital role to play in community development and we strive to bring people and groups together from many faith backgrounds to engage in healthy discussion. Every Kilele product that is sold contributes to the Kilele’s impact in Kenya, but also has ripple effects across other countries. Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Pakistan and the USA are all countries that have been impacted eternally on some level by Kilele’s work.