Vaping did not appear overnight. It took decades of patents, prototypes and false starts before the first commercial e-cigarette reached a shop shelf, and several more years before the technology made its way to Nairobi. This is the story of how it happened.
The patent that sat in a drawer for forty years
In 1963, an American named Herbert A. Gilbert filed a patent for a "smokeless non-tobacco cigarette" that heated flavoured air instead of burning leaf. The device was never manufactured. No company saw a market for it; tobacco was everywhere, and the patent expired without a single unit sold. Gilbert's idea was sound, but the timing was four decades too early.
Hon Lik and the modern e-cigarette
The device the world now recognises as a vape came from a Chinese pharmacist named Hon Lik. In 2003, working for a company later renamed Ruyan, he built a handheld unit that used a piezoelectric element to vaporise a nicotine solution. By 2004, Ruyan was selling it in China, and by 2006 it had crossed into Europe and North America. Those early units looked like cigarettes, drew like cigarettes and were marketed as cigarette alternatives. The industry calls them first-generation devices, or cig-a-likes.
From cig-a-likes to box mods: the four generations
What followed was one of the fastest hardware evolutions in consumer electronics.
- First generation (cig-a-likes): Small, sealed, disposable. Low vapour, limited battery, a handful of flavours. They proved the concept but satisfied almost nobody for long.
- Second generation (vape pens and eGo-style kits): Larger batteries, refillable tanks, replaceable coils. This was the generation that turned vaping from a novelty into a daily habit for millions.
- Third generation (box mods and sub-ohm tanks): Variable wattage, temperature control, large batteries, wide-bore airflow. Cloud chasing became a subculture. Devices like the early VOOPOO Drag belong here.
- Fourth generation (pod systems and modern disposables): Compact, draw-activated, high-nicotine salt compatible. The pod kits and disposable vapes that make up most of the Kenyan market today sit in this generation.
Nicotine salts changed who vaping was for
Until roughly 2015, e-liquid used freebase nicotine, which is harsh at high concentrations and works best in powerful, low-resistance hardware. That kept vaping in the hands of enthusiasts. Then PAX Labs (later JUUL) introduced nicotine salt formulations that deliver high nicotine smoothly in a small, low-power pod. Overnight, the target user shifted from the hobbyist to the adult smoker looking for something simpler. The rise of nicotine salts is one of the most important inflexion points in the industry.
The disposable wave
Around 2020, manufacturers in Shenzhen began producing sealed, pre-filled, rechargeable disposable vapes with puff counts in the thousands. Brands like ELFBAR and Tugboat turned the format into a mass-market product. By 2023, the puff counts had climbed past 10,000, and the devices had screens, adjustable airflow and quad-mesh coils. In Kenya, disposables outsell every other format.
How vaping reached Kenya
The Kenyan market followed the global curve with a lag of a few years. Early adopters imported box mods and tanks through personal orders. By the late 2010s, a small number of retailers in Nairobi were stocking pod kits, and by 2022 disposable vapes had become widely available. The market grew quickly once M-Pesa made purchasing simple and same-day delivery services removed the need for a physical shop visit.
Today the Kenyan vape market spans four main categories: disposable vapes for convenience, pod kits for daily refillable use, pod mods for users who want adjustable power, and mods for the small but committed enthusiast segment. Nicotine salts and freebase e-liquids sit alongside them.
Where the technology is now
Modern vape hardware bears almost no resemblance to Hon Lik's 2003 prototype. A current-generation pod kit like the Uwell Caliburn G5 Lite SE has a 1600mAh battery, mesh coils, USB-C charging and costs KSh 5,000. A high-puff disposable like the Elf Bar Trio 40000 packs 40,000 puffs, a screen, and quad-mesh into a pocket-sized unit. The technology has matured faster than almost any comparable consumer category.
What has not changed
For all the hardware evolution, the core principle is the same as Gilbert's 1963 patent: heat a liquid until it becomes an inhalable aerosol, without combustion. Every device on the Vapesoko shelf, from a KSh 2,500 disposable to a KSh 10,000 mod kit, does exactly that. The engineering has improved. The idea has not.
Vapesoko Nairobi delivers across Kenya: same day inside Nairobi, and 1 to 2 business days to the rest of the country by courier. Payment is by M-Pesa or cash on delivery.