By Mercy Chelangat
The government has finally revealed the identity of an investor who is set to take over operations at struggling RIVATEX East Africa.
Reports recently emerged that the company had sacked all its workers in preparations for the new investor.
Who is the investor taking over RIVATEX?
On Wednesday, October 8, 2025, Trade Principal Secretary Dr Juma Mukhwana was at the Eldoret-based company for the onboarding of the new investor who has been identified as ARISE Integrated Industrial Platforms.
Dr Mukhwana said the investor has already signed a 21-year lease agreement to take over the company.
However, the PS explained that RIVATEX remains a government-owned company despite the leasing agreement.
“I wanted to go down on record very clearly that what has happened here is a lease. The factory remains government property. It has been leased to a private person that will run it, operate it efficiently, pay rent on these premises, and any profits that they will make will be shared between the company and the Government of Kenya, because this is government property,” he told journalists.
The process to identify the investor started in February as the government moved to save the company from total collapse.
According to the Trade PS, the Benin-based investor met all the requirements for the lease.
He noted that the company has been closed for the last three months, and that at the time, it was only operating at 10 percent capacity.
“It was spending more money than it was making because it was operating at very low capacity for different reasons, including inefficiencies and raw material shortages,” the PS said.
On the fate of workers at the factory, the government has already paid all their salary arrears amounting to Ksh 94 million.
The PS also confirmed that over 300 workers who had been employed on permanent and pensionable terms had been sacked to pave the way for the new investor.
“Staff who were working here already had salary arrears of up to six months but the Government of Kenya has committed that it will handle all the liabilities. We have already paid all staff their dues up to the month of October,” the PS said.
How many workers did RIVATEX have?
Rivatex had a total of 625 workers as of early 2025, 347 of whom were on contract till august this year, and 278 on permanent.
The new investor is expected to employ just a few staff once the operations at the company resumes.
“We have agreed that as they start off, they will start with 118 workers, but as they build capacity they will go on boarding, and I’m sure they will do more than the 600 that were here, and even bring in new other people,” the PS said.
The government is optimistic the latest development will help revive the factory and the cotton sector.
“Currently, we are growing about 100,000 acres of cotton across the country. We hope to work with investors here and others to take cotton to the next level so that we have enough raw materials to run this enterprise,” the PS.
ARISE IIP Kenya Chief Executive Officer George Olaka insisted that the company remains a government asset.
He also expressed hope that the RIVATEX revival will help boost local manufacturing industry that rely on textile products.
