Sagana Industrial Park nears commissioning as state team lauds progress

Kirinyaga County’s Sagana Industrial Park is nearing commissioning after a multi-agency national government team gave the project a positive assessment during a visit to verify its progress and identify remaining gaps.

The assessment comes days after the government directed that County Aggregation and Industrial Parks (CAIPs) that have achieved more than 90 per cent completion be fast-tracked for operationalisation.

While leading a multi-agency delegation at the park, Kirinyaga County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Trade, Calbert Njeru, said the visit was a critical step towards completing the industrial park, which is one of Governor Anne Waiguru’s flagship project and a key pillar of the county’s industrialization agenda.

The vision was to create an industrial base that promotes value addition, creates jobs, provides markets for farmers and reduces post-harvest losses.

The CECM noted that the assessment would lead to proper addressing of the outstanding infrastructure, including electricity, water, all-weather roads and a bridge.

“We hope the national government will help us with infrastructure like roads and the bridge so that we can fast-track the remaining works, operationalize the park and have it commissioned,” he said.

The team comprised officials from the State Departments of Industries, Roads, Public Works, Water, Energy, Environment, ICT and Finance, among other agencies.

Speaking on behalf of the State Department for Industries, King’uru Wahome, who led the technical assessment, said the team was verifying whether the reported progress matched the situation on the ground, noting that Kirinyaga’s progress was impressive.

He said the project had risen from about 82 per cent completion six to seven months ago to approximately 94 per cent, placing Kirinyaga among the leading counties in CAIP implementation.

“Kirinyaga is among the top counties so far in implementation of the CAIPs and we are happy and impressed,” he said.

He noted that the team had identified electricity, water treatment, tarmacked internal roads and a bridge as some of the outstanding requirements, which would be escalated for the relevant action.

Deputy County Commissioner for Kirinyaga West John Mbugua said the progress demonstrated what could be achieved through collaboration between the two levels of government. “We are happy to report that the progress is satisfactory. The project has come from far and it is a testament to what can be achieved when people work together,” Mbugua said.

He said completing the remaining works would unlock more economic opportunities, noting that the park had already employed both skilled and unskilled workers, with many more expected to be employed once the park is operationalized.

The assessment coincided with a benchmarking visit by Nyeri County’s Department of Trade and Industries, which came to learn from Kirinyaga’s experience in implementing the CAIP programme.

Nyeri CECM for Trade Lucy Kiogura said her county was about 50 per cent into its own CAIP and wanted practical lessons from Sagana, which began earlier.

“We came to Kirinyaga to benchmark on CAIPs and to learn so that it can make our work easier, and we are glad we now know what we require as a county for successful implementation of our project,” Kiogura said.

She said the delegation was particularly interested in cold rooms, power supply and roofing structures, adding that the visit had given Nyeri a clearer picture of what was required.

CECM Njeru noted that the constant benchmarking visits by various counties reflected growing interest in Kirinyaga’s industrial development model and welcomed more, saying such visits were one way of promoting peer learning among counties.

“Iron sharpens iron. We keep learning from each other,” Njeru concluded.

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