Parliament has shot down a proposal by the Ministry of Trade and Industrialisation to move Rivatex from Eldoret to Naivasha.
The National Assembly’s committee on Trade and Industry told the Industry Principal Secretary Juma Mukhwana to drop the idea as leaders from the North Rift region will not accept the apparel manufacturing company to be moved to the Naivasha Special Economic Zone.
Dr Mukhwana told the committee chaired by James Gakuya that there are plans by the ministry to transfer the Eldoret-based Rivatex to Naivasha.
The committee vice chairperson Maryanne Keitany led other MPs in rejecting the proposal arguing the move will hurt the local community which depends on the apparel firm for jobs.
“We will reject any attempt to move Rivatex from Eldoret to Naivasha. That is a big no to us. The factory supports many families who depend on it for employment. The best you can do is to open a subsidiary company in Naivasha but not to move Rivatex,” Ms Keitany said.
She said those in the political arena will block any attempts to relocate Rivatex from Eldoret. She said the government had pumped a lot of money to revive Rivatex and moving it out of Eldoret will be an impossibility.
The ministry had informed the committee that a policy decision had been made to relocate Rivatex to Naivasha's special economic zone.
“Don’t even imagine moving Rivatex. This will never happen in this country. We will not allow Rivatex to be moved,” Adams Kipsanai, the Keiyo North MP said.
Vihiga Woman Representative Beatrice Adagala demanded to know whether public participation had been undertaken in the affected community on the planned movement of Rivatex from Eldoret.
She asked Dr Mukhwana to explain whether residents of Eldoret and its environs are comfortable with the relocation plan.
Ms Adagala said Rivatex supports farmers as far as the western region and relocating the firm will affect them in a big way.
Dr Mukhwana said the decision to move Rivatex from Eldoret to Naivasha was made at a higher level.
“On the issue of moving Rivatex from Eldoret to Naivasha, we will take it up with our seniors,” Dr Mukhwana told MPs.
He appeared before the committee together with the Principal Secretary for Investments Abubakar Hassan to defend their respective budgets under Supplementary Budget No 1.
The two PSs decried the slashing of the Trade and Industry budgets arguing it will affect key priority areas as the ministry will be unable to undertake plans to attract investors.
The Treasury allocated the ministry Sh7 billion in the current budget under the investments promotion and industry but has been slashed by Sh1.4 billion in the Supplementary Budget.
Under the Trade State Department, the Treasury allocated Sh4 billion but slashed Sh486.8 million.
“The available budget for the ministry’s priority areas is Sh137 million, However, the total budget required to fully implement the priority areas in the Supplementary Budget is Sh2.288 billion,” Mr Mukhwana said.
He said the impact of the budget cut had affected the projects such as Dongo Kundu special economic zones.
“We had targeted to do Sh35 billion in terms of attracting investments but currently we have no budget. For the Export Promotion Zones Authority (EPZA), we targeted bSh108 billion but the budget has been reduced,” Mr Mukhwana said.
Mr Abubakar said investment promotions require money to attract investors into the country.
