By KPC Reporter
The dream to have aggregation and industrial parks in several counties might take longer to be achieved due to sluggish works.
The parks are anchored on the Bottom -Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), an economic recovery strategy of President William Ruto’s administration.
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The projects are dear to the government due to recognition of the role played by agriculture and manufacturing sectors in income generation, wealth and job creation.
Ruto has said several times before that the parks will increase foreign exchange earnings, and reduce poverty at the grassroots.
The national government aims to work jointly with county governments to establish the parks in each of the 47 devolved units.
“Each County will allocate Kshs. 250 Million (while the) National Government through (the) State Department for Industry (will provide) Kshs. 250 Million,” according to information available on the Ministry of Industrialization website.
“Over the years, the growth of the manufacturing sector has remained stagnant at around 11% of the GDP over the past ten years. This has resulted in reduction of jobs, stagnation in exports while imports have been growing.”
Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry PS Juma Mukhwana, previously said that the Ksh.250 from county governments would be used to fund the provision of electricity, water, effluent management, internet, security and common transport.
He was quoted in sections of the media stating that a local bank had promised to provide Sh250 billion to support the purchase of manufacturing equipment for industries willing to invest in the parks.
Implementation had been staggered in three phases, and over Ksh.5 billion is projected to be spent in construction works.
The projects are currently being implemented in Nyamira, Kisii, Busia, Murang’a, Kakamega, Kirinyaga among other counties.
However, reports show that works have stopped in some sites and the already established and abandoned infrastructure has been covered by thick vegetation.
For example, a spot check at Sironga, which is the site for the Nyamira County Aggregation and Industrial Park on Thursday, established that there were no contractors, machinery or construction workers on the ground.
The gate into the site was closed and two men were clearing overgrown grass along the road.
“The construction stopped several weeks ago,” Denis Okinyi, a resident, said.
The construction which started over a year ago stops from time to time, according to residents.
So far, there is only one permanent building whose construction has stopped for a couple of weeks.
The building stands about 100 metres from the site house whose walls are made of iron sheets.
There were heaps and heaps of excavated sand, posing a danger to residents.
The area experiences rainfall from time to time and residents fear that water gathering in the depressions may be fertile breeding areas for mosquitoes, and cause other waterborne diseases.
Residents who previously made bricks at the site expressed fears that it might take longer before they start to see fruits from the government initiative.
“Before they fenced off this area, we used to make bricks and sell them to put food on the table,” said Mary Tegisi.
She said apart from brick makers, others earned a living from the area by providing transportation labour while some took advantage of the human traffic to sell food.
Tegisi wondered if the construction of the park would be completed as promised by Ruto so as to unlock the industrial potential of Nyamira.
When the President laid a foundation stone at the site in August last year, he said that parks would broaden opportunities for Kenyans and boost economic growth.
The government indicated that it would also establish a Sh6 million fund to provide start-up capital to small-scale traders and youth under a programme dubbed “Viwanda Mashinani”.
“This project will create over 50,000 jobs and reduce poverty in this region,” the Head of State said, adding that the facility will offer cold storage and value addition facilities for bananas, avocado, coffee and vegetables to help farmers maximise their earnings.
During the campaigns in the run-up to the 2022 general elections, Ruto promised to address joblessness in the country if he clinched victory.
Kenya has a worrying unemployment rate and of late, thousands of young people have been making efforts to fly out of the country in search of a sustainable living.
According to the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), the unemployment rate of Kenyan youth (15–34 years old) is at around 67%.
Reports also indicate that over one million young people enter the labour market annually, a majority from universities and other middle level colleges.
However, the Kenyan job market is not creating adequate jobs to absorb this huge number of young people, according to information published by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
The idea of aggregation and industrial parks has worked in countries such as China, which was poorer than most of the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries when it started its economic transformation in 1979.
This is according to Dr. Justin Yifu Lin and Dr. Yan Wang, authors of “China-Africa win-win strategy for job creation and transformation”, an article that was published this year.
President Ruto has lately been under fire from various quarters as Kenyans question his policies, whose impact is yet to trickle down to them.
“The aggregation and industrial parks idea was good but it should have been implemented in phases. Kenya is not big enough to have such parks per county. The idea as being implemented is not economically and logically viable,” said John Momanyi, a Nyamira businessman.
However, Ruto does not have kind words for such dissenting voices of late.
“There is an evil spirit of opposing everything… affordable housing, cow vaccinations, university model; they oppose healthcare matters,” the president said recently.
The Head of State said that he is on a mission to revive the country’s economy and push for transformational development.
Ruto urged Kenyans to stay away from his critics, whom he says have the spirit of negativity and persistence to watch Kenya fail.
He reiterated that continuous negativity is not progressive, adding that: “I want to tell the people of Kenya that this country is going to succeed and we will shame the naysayers.”
- The bulk of this story was first published by People Daily
