Kitui county is set to benefit from a massive investment of 36.9 billion clinker factory by Savannah cement.
The company contracted Chinese Company Sinoma International Engineering to construct the factory last week.
The plant has a capacity of 8,000 tonnes per day and will have a 2,400 cement grinding plant equipped with a 35MW captive power plant, a 13MW waste-heat recovery system, and other amenities.
Within the first five years, Savannah Cement chair Benson Ndeta said the company will replace fossil fuel-based power requirements with a combination of solar power and thermal recirculation, becoming the first plant in the region to achieve this.
The plant is set to employ 5,000 people during construction and 10,000 others after construction and will be the biggest industrial investment in Eastern Kenya.
Sinoma International Engineering plans to commence the project immediately. The project will take 2 and a half years and will be located in Mwingi North.
Kenya has a clinker deficit of about 3.5 million tonnes a year, and the proposed clinker manufacturing plant is a great step towards making the country clinker sufficient.
Since the onset of Covid-19 global clinker prices have been fluctuating hurting local cement companies that rely on imported clinker.
