Kentons Chemists was started in 1979 by Dr Ashok K. Shah , B.Pharm (Hons), MRPharmS  who qualified at the School of Pharmacy, University of London. After graduation he spent two years with Boots the chemists, a large retail pharmacy chain in the UK, first as a management trainee and later as a branch manager. In 1979 he came back to Kisumu, his birthplace, to start a retail pharmacy under the name of Kentons Chemists.

The experience gained in management, merchandising and marketing techniques learnt in England were put to use here in starting our pharmacy, which gave benefit of low prices, good service and value for money to the people of Kisumu.

We started as retail chemists concentrating on prescriptions, counter sales, cosmetics, toiletries and babycare with one mission, that is to sell good quality products at low prices. 
This consumer-friendly approach meant that we rapidly increased our turnover and became a leading retailer of healthcare products, toiletries, cosmetics and babycare products.

With increasing competition over a period of time from supermarkets and other chain stores we shifted our focus to our core business which is pharmaceuticals.

With storage space of 12000-sq. ft, we are able to carry adequate stocks of most fast moving items.

We intend to develop close working relationships with other pharmacies so that they too can have the advantage of even lower prices as a result of our purchasing power. We intend to form strategic alliances with some of the major pharmaceutical manufacturers in Kenya so that they can have the advantage of our warehousing and distribution facility.

Being a low-cost, high volume wholesaler, both local and international manufacturers can use our facilities as a conduit to make sure that their products reach each and every pharmacy in Nyanza and Western provinces.

We intend to use our website, e-mail and other modern means of communication to effectively communicate product and price information to each and every pharmacy in this area.