By Anderson Ojwang
Murang’a County could arguably be said to be Kenya’s economic heartbeat and the home of the country’s billionaires.
Centrally located 90 kilometres away from Nairobi City, Murang’a bypassed Kiambu and Nyeri, the Mt Kenya political power points, to emerge as the economic tiger in the region and nationally.
In Nairobi City, Murang’a holds the key to its economic and real estate development and growth. Murang’a is least associated with high-voltage political activities common in most regions of the country, and more specifically, Nyanza.
Murang’a is known for its fertile soil and good climate, which are good for farming both food crops and cash crops.
The main food crops grown in the area include maize, beans, sweet potatoes, arrowroots, pumpkins and bananas, while the cash crops are tea and coffee.
Murang’a has a rich history dating back to the missionaries and the colonial era, which have shaped its destiny towards economics rather than hard politics.
Murang’a was the first place the missionaries ventured into and settled in. When the British set up the East African Protectorate in 1895, their first administrative post, Fort Smith, was located in Murang’a.
The missionaries were initially welcomed by Karuri Wagakure, who was the Chief of Tuthu, and this allowed the Mission Church in Kenya to be set up in Murang’a.
Murang’a is the source of rivers Maragua, which originates from the heart of the Aberdare Range, Mathioya, Kayahwe, Irati and Muriurio among others.
The Chief Executive Officer of Equity Group Holdings, Dr James Mwangi, in a recent investment conference in Murang’a with President William Ruto, told the President that Murang’a was well served with tarmacked roads.
“Last time I stayed in the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, I paid $12 for a sachet of 10 grams of the tea bag I produced. As an accountant, I computed $12 by sh130, the exchange rate, it came to sh150,000, and for me as a farmer, I only got sh75.
Your Excellency, if there is no other case, it is the power of value addition for Murang’a farmers; this is the only way we can motivate them.
I am okay to pay the Kenya Government a tax of sh30,000, and I keep sh120,000. Your Excellency, if we look at it that way, I invite you to assign me as a person for this project, but from your office, so that I can make it happen.
The second aspect, Your Excellency, is that tea is grown in the upper zone; there is no ridge in Murang’a without a tarmacked road to the upper ridge. So we are not asking for road infrastructure. You did the Mau Mau Road, I have seen that work is ongoing. Let’s complete it. We are not asking for a heavy investment in roads to enable the produce to come to the manufacturing hub.
Your Excellency, it is clean industrialisation. Murang’a is next to the Seven Falls Hydro Dam. We shall use hydro energy, so Kenya will teach the world that manufacturing is green. Our tea would be green. But Your Excellency, I would fail if I didn’t remind you that alsoMurang’a is the number one avocado producer in Kenya.
We can also construct factories for avocado processing so that we may stop selling fruits and instead sell oil.
And if you can help us, we can sell cosmetics. So we go up to sh150,000 instead of sh75.
Your Excellency, we are also number two in macadamia production in Kenya, and we are number two in coffee. Your Excellency, there is no other country that can give you that kind of scope. It is only Murang’a.
So I am persuading the government to support this initiative because it has the requisite. Then Murang’a can also carry the rest of the Central Region because it’s the bottleneck to the city and the export airports and ports.
So essentially, the produce of Murang’a can be complemented by the produce of Nyeri, Kirinyaga and Meru because the infrastructure is complete.
In my business school of simple economics, Your Excellency, Murang’a ticks all.
Murang’a has a university, a teachers’ college and has educated its children. The young people in Murang’a are yearning for jobs. This industrial park would be able to significantly help us alleviate the challenge of joblessness.
There would be a good return to the Ministry of Education and the government. You are investing a third of the budget of country in education.
But we are not having jobs to enable our people to pay tax like I do. So why don’t we solve the equation by giving them jobs through the industrial park?
Your Excellency, I stand to say that I will support this initiative. Equity Bank will fully support this initiative, and Your Excellency, you can leave out the financing for the industrialisation to Equity Bank.
That I can deal with. I just need to be enabled. Two weeks ago, I was with you. We assembled all the financial service providers in Nairobi. I would like to direct them there and tell them that I have managed to arrange a project we can all syndicate,” he said.
Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata revealed that the county had several investment opportunities.
“Your Excellency, we are here for this conference for four reasons. We want to attract industries that can come and invest, and through that we will be able to create jobs, raise revenue and create backwards linkages for our farmers.
In the Murang’a industrial park, we have 1,300 acres of land at a place near Makenji. The County Assembly has approved the master plan. In that master plan, 500 acres have been donated to EPZ, and we are happy they are currently building infrastructure.
The balance of 800 acres of land has been zoned for manufacturing and other uses. We have also given national government agencies pieces of land inside this park.
The Ministry of Housing has embarked on phase two of the housing programme of 2,200 housing units in the park and the construction is ongoing. This land is open to anyone who wants to do manufacturing,” he said.
Edited by Trina Chebaibai
