Kirinyaga County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs) project has
got a multi-agency nod for ground breaking.
This is after officials from the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industries
(MITI), National Treasury, the Kenya Industrial Research and
Development Institute (KIRDI), Council of Governors (CoG) gave a clean
bill of health for the roll out.
The project sitting on a 242-acre land at Sagana is set for launch by
President William Ruto later this year.
The officials who were on a site visit said they were satisfied on County
Government of Kirinyaga preparedness for the development of the
industrial park.
Director of Industries in the State Department of Industrialization Joseph
Mbeva, said the team is satisfied that Kirinyaga had met all the conditions
for the start of the project.
“The aim of this visit is to engage officials from Kirinyaga county to check
on preparedness and we agree on implementation of the project,” Mbeva
said.
He said aggregation and industrial parks is one of the most sustainable
efforts by the national and county governments to shape Kenya’s economy
by targeting specific inclusive economic activities.
Mbeva said with the industrial parks, counties are set to be the new
frontiers of investment and economic development through increased
national productivity and sustainable diversification of production.
“The preparation by the County Government of Kirinyaga is very
impressive, we are satisfied they are ready for the roll out, we are here to
engage with the County’s stakeholders on how we will walk together to
realize the CAIPs project,” Mbeva added.
Through CAIPS, the government will support the establishment of industrial
ventures through construction of industrial parks, disbursement of research
and development grants. In no time counties will be able to pioneer
successful ventures spawning into a new industrial ecosystem that supports
the Bottom-Up-Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA).
Speaking separately, Governor Anne Waiguru, has said that CAIPs are
designed to support micro, small and medium sized enterprises to engage
in significant domestic and international trade through export diversification
and value addition.
“This creates a great opportunity to grow jobs along the various value
chains, raise incomes and close rural-urban inequality gaps as locals also
participate in global supply chain through value addition,” she said.
She said that some counties started getting ready for the establishment of
the industrial parks by initiatives such as constructing aggregation centers
for agricultural produce as well as organizing farmers into groups or
cooperatives for group marketing.
Waiguru said her administration has allocated Ksh. 275 million in the next
financial year budget for the development of the Sagana Industrial Park.
This money will be complemented by another Ksh. 250 million grant from
the National Government.
The Council of Governors chair has indicated the readiness by the county
farmers to be the main raw material producers for the agro processors that
will establish factories at the industrial park.
County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Cooperative
Development, Trade, Marketing, Tourism, Industrialization and Enterprise
Development Calbert Njeru said the aggregation and industrial parks will
offer hopes to the farmers who will now be able to aggregate their crop,
access proper storage and processing facilities as they source for direct
market to processors or exporters.
Njeru said the project will grow the economy and help create thousands of
jobs for Kenyans.
“One of the major reasons for this project is to reduce post-harvest losses
for the farmers. The project is also meant to trigger development of
manufacturing, reducing import of products and encouraging exports, our
people will get employment from the industries and our economy will grow,”
said Njeru.
County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Finance and Economic
Planning Jackline Njogu said the county has met all the minimum
requirements set by the national government for the project and is ready to
commence with works to develop the parks.
“For us here we are ready and the team has seen for itself and we are just
waiting for the official launch of the start of the works,” she said.
Being predominantly an agricultural county, Waiguru’s administration has
been supporting farmers to increase agricultural production and mobilizing
them to form groups and cooperatives to enable group marketing. Her
model involves enabling export that is facilitated by aggregation of produce
by the farmers themselves.
As such, her administration has set up aggregation centers for produce
such as tomatoes, avocados and bananas with the requisite amenities to
support post-harvest management before being collected for processing. A
fish aggregation center is also coming up as the county that is the leading
fishpond aquaculture producer readies itself for fish processing. Among the
processing factories expected to be set up at the Sagana CAIP include
avocado, macadamia, tomatoes, fish and dairy.
Through CAIPS, Kenya has a unique opportunity to leapfrog our renowned
service sectors and e-commerce as forces of inclusion being Africa’s
Silicon Savanah, and County governments.
