Kenya’s first Leather Park at Kinanie, Machakos County is set to be ready for use by end of this year. Acting Director, at the Directorate of Agro–Industries under the Trade and Industrialisation ministry, Simon Atebe revealed the report and said it will be ready for occupation by December 2021 when the effluence plant will be complete and facilities for firms to occupy are ready.
The development of the Leather Park is guided by Kenya’s Vision 2030, the country’s economic development blueprint, that aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrialized, “middle-income country providing a high-quality life to all its citizens by the year 2030”
The objective of the Economic Pillar of Vision 2030 is to create a robust, diversified and competitive manufacturing sector in three ways: 1) boosting local production, 2) expanding to the regional market and 3) taking advantage of global market niches.
Features of the park
The park sitting on a 500-acre land is designed to be a one-stop shop for leather, leather goods and related industries, including tanneries. A tannery requires huge amounts of water, power and an effluent treatment plant to operate efficiently. The affluent plant is the biggest incentive to investors at the park. The completion of the project has been delayed for years due to the slow construction of an effluent treatment plant.
The park to be granted export processing zone status, is expected to revolutionise the leather value chain, creating a new market for skins and hides. Kenya’s leather sector has failed to hit its potential due to exports of semi-processed leather commonly known as wet-blue, smuggling of raw hides and skins and influx of illicit leather in the market.
Leather export value dropped to Sh2.95 billion in 2019 from Sh4.42 billion in 2018, according to the Economic Survey 2020. The Leather Park aims to create an enabling environment for the attraction and facilitation of increased Foreign and Domestic Direct Investments into Kenya.
