News

MPs allocate Sh3.4bn for Naivasha industry park land

park

Manufacturing is part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The plan to build an industrial park in Naivasha has received a major boost after Parliament allocated Sh3.4 billion to cater for acquisition of land in its latest public expenditure reorganisation.

It will, however, be interesting to see how much the State offers to entice property owners in an area worst hit by unrestrained subdivision of land.

Failure to secure land had previously delayed the building of the park initially floated as a Nakuru County project. Nakuru County has since banned subdivision of plots that are less than five acres.

The Industrial Park to be located in Enosupukia, together with a leather Industrial park in Kenanie and modernisation of Rivatex have been flagged off among the priority areas.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has sought to raise the GDP contribution of manufacturing — which reached 8.4 per cent last year — to 15 per cent by the time he leaves office in five years.

READ: Dubai textiles firm to create 10,000 jobs at Olkaria plant

The supplementary budget tabled in Parliament last week, however, seeks to cut Sh285 million from the Kenanie Leather Industrial park budget to be used in the construction of constituency industrial development centres under the government’s standards and business incubation programme.

“Considering that we are in the last quarter of the financial year, the departments are not likely to absorb the funds as early proposed,” committee on trade, industry and cooperatives observe.

“The Kenanie Leather Park under the economic stimulus project has been dragging for a long time and needs to be expedited to accelerate industrial growth,” notes the committee. 

The production units of the park will be linked to markets by the standard gauge railway (SGR) line.

Kenya Railways says contractor for the phase 2A of the SGR is finally ready to start work after high cost of land almost ruined the project.