(Nairobi) – Every day, about a dozen mobile phone wholesalers field orders and manufacturer offers from offices inside a nondescript, five-story building on Luthuli Avenue in downtown Nairobi.

The building doesn't look like a hub for global commerce, nor does it have a name. But the Chinese wholesalers inside have sold millions of knockoff and budget-priced handhelds to Kenyans and the consumers across East Africa in recent years.