Industrial parks will tame marauding middlemen - CS Kuria

The Industrialisation CS Moses Kuria on Wednesday launched the eleventh aggregation and industrial park in Kajiado County.

Kuria said the launch of the county industrial park will mark the end of brokers and the middlemen who for many years have impoverished the farmers in the region.

“The farmers in Kajiado will no longer sell their cows through brokers and middlemen for slaughter, but will sell the meat, milk and skin products that have been added value,” said Kuria.

He said the Kajiado business people and farmers will be assisted by the government to add value to their products through the aggregated industrial parks across the country.

“I am aware that farmers in the Loitokitok region are producing onions, tomatoes and fruits that will require processing in the county aggregated industrial park before they are released to the markets,” he said.

The CS said onion and tomato farmers in the county have been frustrated by brokers and middlemen who pay little money for their products and yet they make huge products in the city markets.

He said the government will equip the parks with processing machines that will be hired out at small tokens.

Speaking during the occasion, Governor Joseph Ole Lenku, said the launch of the county aggregated industrial park in Kajiado will turn around the lives of the pastoralists and commercial crop farmers. 

He said the park will help farmers process their livestock products such as milk, hides, skin, bones and hooves for purposes of adding value.

The governor said that once the park is ready by early next year, machines for processing tomatoes and onions will have been fixed in place.

He said the county has set aside 150 acres for the industrial park in the county, adding that in the initial stage, the park in the Dalalekutuk ward will only take about 10 acres.

Lenku said the county has already formed a committee of 125 people to oversee the construction of the park.

“We want to nurture an industrial park that will benefit the people of Kajiado. My government is working on modulated pastoralism and liveable towns in a bid to mitigate climate change."

The farmers, he said, will raise livestock of high value and not the traditional ones that produce little milk and meat.

He said he would work closely with the pastoralists to ensure their livestock would produce enough milk every month of the year.

The occasion was also addressed by the deputy governor, Martin Moshisho, MPs Onesmus Ngogoyo and Parashina Sakimba and Industrialisation PS Juma Mukhwana.