Grocery Guide: The 10 Best Wheat Flour Brands in Kenya (2023)

While baking, making mandazis and chapatis is skill based, the flour choice does matter in amplifying your skills. So getting the best flour brand for your use case will guarantee results and you will have confidence in the expected outcome. This post is on the 10 best brands you should be shopping for.

You may think you are bad at baking or making chapatis, whole time it is the flour holding you back (don’t ask me how I found out).

Initially, I was ignorant that wheat flour is just the same wheat milled and packed in different brands for reasons I don’t know either. I was so wrong.

Here is a personal rank of the common and popular wheat flour in Kenya to find the best one.

As always, I keep reviews as unbiased as possible; as I am not affiliated or sponsored by any of the featured brands, so anything said is my opinion and how I truly feel about the product.

If the brand is good I would recommend it, if bad I would blatantly trash it.

Let’s get started off with a summary in case you don’t wanna read the whole thing

Table of Contents

A Summary of the Best Wheat Flour Brands in Kenya

Best Overall: Soko

Best Chapatis: Soko

Best Texture: Soko

Best Atta Mark: Dola

Best Dough Workability: Ajab

Best Rising Mandazi & Mahamri: Ajab

Best Budget Choice: Pendo

Best Flour Variety: EXE

Best Pancakes & Waffles: EXE

Best Cookies: Pembe

10. Oboma

Oboma wheat flour makes our list at number 10, but it doesn’t offer anything particularly special.

While it is an acceptable option, it may not be the best value for your money, making it more of a last resort choice.

Even though Oboma is on the relatively budget side, there are better options in the price category. I would only recommend Oboma when there is nothing else on the shelf for your budget.

Oboma is by Bakex Millers in Thika established in 1983 and running ever since.

Bakex Millers is affiliated with Broadways Bakery as a sister company.

9. Taifa

Taifa flour is not as mainstream as some other brands but still deserves recognition. It’s a decent choice for those looking for alternatives, offering a satisfactory baking experience.

Taifa is a brand by Mombasa Maize Milers

8. Pendo

Pendo is a brand by Unga Limited and is the newest brand in this list, just launched in 2023.

Unga Limited also owns the famous EXE brand that has been in existence for decades.

EXE is considered a premium brand and it comes with a premium price tag.

It is reasonable that Unga Limited came up with the Pendo brand to cater to budget shoppers; who are actually the majority.

It is by far the cheapest brand on this list, while it is not the highest quality, it offers a good commercial value.

Pendo is the popular choice of flour used in your local kibandasky to make those sizzling chapos, thanks to the economical aspect of the brand.

7. Ndovu

Ndovu used to be a prominent player in the wheat flour market, but its market share has declined recently.

While it may not be as popular as it once was, it can still be considered a decent option for your baking needs.

It is priced on the budget spectrum and for the price, it is a solid option. Quality wise it is the best so far.

Ndovu is a product by Mombasa Maize Millers(MMM)

6. Eliot’s

Eliot’s wheat flour is fairly good, although not as mainstream as some other brands, it is more on the niche side

It offers a satisfactory baking experience and can be a solid choice for those seeking a reliable alternative to other brands.

Personally, it is just fair and doesn’t stand out in any aspect, or outshine other brands.

It is produced by Baraka Mills, this brand name is famous among the older generations; since back in the day, Elliot’s made the best-tasting bread (according to the baby boomers) Assuming we can trust them.

5. Pembe

Pembe wheat flour is a good option, but it does have some consistency issues that you should be aware of.

While it can produce excellent results, it may not be as reliable as some other brands.

The batches just don’t align. The flour you buy this week could be different from next week in terms of results. While the shifting is not that bad, it is big enough to be noticeable

I found Pembe shinned especially in making cookies, they turn out the crunchiest as always. Pembe is surprisingly good especially when working with stiff doughs and you don’t have access to a mixer.

4. EXE

EXE wheat flour is known for its quality, but it comes at a premium price.

It may be considered overpriced, especially by me.

EXE has been my default flour choice since back then.

I thought, the more expensive the better the quality, boy was I so wrong

I later switched brands for experimentation purposes, is when reality hit me. Cheaper brands were offering comparable results and some even way better!

EXE is a brand of quality, yes, but in terms of value for your money, you are getting nothing. So I wouldn’t recommend this brand.

The only good thing about EXE is that they have 6 different variations, which while may be nice and convenient for the consumer, doesn’t change the value aspect.

The Variations of EXE wheat flour are; All Purpose, Chapati, Atta Mark, Mandazi, Self Raising, Brown Bread

Tell me why, EXE Chapati, a specially curated and milled flour for chapatis, gets obliterated by other brands that are actually all-purpose and not dedicated to chapatis?

Self-raising is probably the best flour from EXE, it is just right for where you don’t need to customize alot of things. It makes good pancakes straight from the packet. While it is not as good as those expensive pancake premixes, it does a commendable job

EXE is a brand by Unga Limited founded in 1908 making it the oldest brand here.

3. Dola

Dola wheat flour offers good quality at a reasonable price. It is known for its consistency and is a reliable option for various baking needs.

While it is not the best overall, it packs almost the perfect balance of all aspects from affordability, availability, flour texture, and quality.

Dola has an Atta Mark variant and it is the best Atta Mark flour that I would recommend to my readers. It is just milled to perfection, consistent, and smoother than most Atta Mark brands.

The results just echo the flour, and it produces the smoothest brown chapatis, that actually don’t taste like they have soil particles in them, and that actually don’t crumble on cooling

Dola brand is by Kitui Flour Kitui Flour Mills which is ironically not in Kitui, but Mombasa.

The company has the strongest distribution system in Kenya, so be sure to find Dola flour everywhere even in your small apartment Mini Shop.

Dola wheat flour is easily readily available and adopted for those reasons.

2. Ajab

Ajab wheat flour earns its spot at number two for its excellent dough-stretching and rising properties.

I found Ajab’s dough to be the easiest to work with. So if you are making big batches of chapatis, mandazis, or any bakery, I would actually recommend this.

The other thing about Ajab is the rising aspect which increases the volume significantly on rising compared to other brands.

Indeed it is the flour that does more, you will get more mandazis and chapatis from Ajab than any flour brand, not even from the number-one spot

If you have a large family or are a heavy & serious home baker who values these attributes, Ajab is a top-notch choice.

Ajab has an Atta Mark variant for those who want whole grain bakery products. I haven’t tried it so I won’t say anything about it yet.

Ajab brand is by Grain Industries in Mombasa launched in 2018. Ajab exploded in popularity in 2018 due to the aggressive brand advertisements and the product actually turning out to be quality for those who gave it a chance.

Since then, Ajab has been the most mass-adopted wheat flour brand by Kenyans, it is impressive that quality remained consistent even with the brand’s growth.

Grain Industries launched the Ajab Maize brand later, but it has struggled to attain the same success as its pilot wheat flour.

1. Soko

Taking the top spot on our list is Soko wheat flour. Soko flour stands out for its consistency and versatility.

The consistently delivers excellent results and is suitable for a wide range of baking applications.

For instance, I personally found that Soko wheat flour delivered the best overall results for me.

The softest chapatis I have ever made were with this Soko brand, and since then, this is the flour I keep in my pantry.

While I may not know the exact scientific reasons behind it, the proof is in the baking process and result.

Soko is the best all-purpose wheat flour brand in Kenya and I would confidently recommend it to anyone.

Thoughts?

When it comes to choosing the best wheat flour in Kenya, it’s essential to consider your specific needs and preferences.

While Soko flour takes the top spot overall, other brands like Ajab and Dola also offer different aspects each that may have more weight for the results you want.

Ultimately, the choice of wheat flour depends on your baking requirements and budget.