The State Department for Industry announced it will centrally manage the KSh2.45 billion equipment purchase for County Aggregation and Industrial Parks, overturning an earlier plan that placed the task with county governments.
Principal Secretary for Investment Promotion Abubakar Hassan Abubakar told the National Assembly's committee on Trade that the department will now oversee the procurement and provide guidance on the machinery to be installed, saying “We were initially to disburse the funds to the counties but we have just reversed that, we will a ministry jointly acquire the equipment,”.
The CAIPs programme had been allocated KSh2.45 billion to be channelled to counties as transfers, but the national government has already disbursed KSh8.5 billion to 34 counties for park construction and has fulfilled its commitment of KSh250 million per county for facility development.
Abubakar noted that only seven of the 34 counties have achieved more than 90 per cent completion, naming Meru and Wajir as finished, Kirinyaga at 92 per cent, Embu at 90 per cent, Nyeri at 91 per cent, Garissa at 90 per cent and Kisii at 92 per cent, while Machakos stands at 77 per cent.
Aldai MP Marianne Kitany asked the committee to explain the monitoring mechanisms for the KSh250 million allocations, questioning “what role does the State Department have in terms of oversight, to ensure that government money is not misdirected to other operations,”.
Ikolomani MP Bernard Shinali, who chairs the committee, argued that equipment selection should be based on each county’s raw material profile rather than a uniform approach, stating “Every area has a different need. The requirements for tomatoes, potatoes and rice are different. Have you considered the specific needs of each region?”.
The machinery to be procured will consist of common-user facilities designed to process locally available agricultural produce and other raw materials, meaning counties producing tomatoes, potatoes, rice and similar commodities may require different processing and storage equipment.
MPs also raised concerns about whether the equipment could be installed before the parks become operational, noting that the revised procurement arrangement comes amid questions over the readiness of some facilities.
The programme is intended to link agricultural production with manufacturing by enabling farmers and small businesses to process commodities nearer to their sources, but delays in infrastructure completion and uncertainty over procurement control could slow the rollout despite billions of shillings already committed.
