In April, Devik opened a new factory to make clinker out of limestone deposits in West Pokot.
Last week, Devki launched another factory in Taita Taveta to pelletise refined iron ores supplied by artisanal miners, in readiness for local steel manufacture in a neighbouring county.
The two Devki enterprises are perfect examples of what our economic planners and investment promoters should routinely focus on —value addition industrialisation, import substitution, exports, and job creation.
Indeed, it is through natural resource exploitation and value-addition that national wealth and gross domestic product growth are mostly accomplished across the world. This is how Kenya’s economic and industrialisation blueprint of 1960-70s nearly made it an “economic tiger”.
The momentum was unfortunately disrupted by poor political and economic governance, and the International Monetary Fund pushed for Kenya to prematurely adopt globalised free markets and import liberalisation in the early 1990s.
The two Devki projects are perfect examples of economic partnerships between investors, county and national governments, and local communities, with each player benefitting directly or indirectly.
Arid and semi-arid counties are usually blessed with minerals, which are compensating economic opportunities.
It is quite surprising that all these years, Kitui political leadership has not pushed for the exploitation of industrial minerals (limestone, iron ore and coal) said to be abundant in the county.
And talking of local value-addition and import substitution, Kajiado and the Industrialisation ministry should seriously evaluate how Magadi soda resources can be used locally for the value-addition of various products, like glass, which Kenya routinely imports.
This line of approach can be applied to many other minerals which are exported unprocessed.
The Taita Taveta iron ore model can be applied in many areas of artisanal mining, where small productions are bulked up for local value-addition processing and exports, a model already in use for western Kenya artisanal gold mining.
However, it is important that appropriate capacity building is developed to ensure effective artisanal co-operatives management to avoid economic exploitation.
We should not ignore the urgency to commercialise our energy minerals (oil and coal) in Turkana and Kitui. I am a strong believer in economic and energy pragmatism. It is not smart for Kenya to import oil and coal when we have these resources under our soil.
The largest carbon emitters—the US, China, and EU—prioritise the exploitation of their fossil energy resources, as they persuade the Global South to ignore our “dirty” fuel. Instead, industrialised countries encourage us to invest in green projects for carbon credits to offset their emissions.
