Plans are at an advanced stage for an investor to set up a socks manufacturing company in Eldoret town.
According to the Industrialization Principal Secretary Dr Juma Mukhwana, the investor has already had engagements with the national government.
Dr Mukhawana, speaking during a visit to the Rift Valley Textile Company (RIVATEX) in Eldoret further said County Government of Uasin Gishu has agreed to allocate land that the investor will set up the factory.
Once set up, the factory is expected to create job opportunities for the locals in the county.
“The socks factory will be using materials from Rivatex and the product will be sold globally. They will employ at least 3,000 people,” said PS Mukhwana.
“Our work as national government is to get investors and link them up with counties,” he added.
Further, the Industrialization PS said as a government, they have set a target of creating at least 500,000 jobs in the textile industry.
The sector currently employs about 50,000 people only.
Cotton farming
As part of the plan to revitalize the textile industry, Dr Mukhwana says they have started engaging the Council of Governors on the need for counties with the ability to grow cotton to set up ginneries and cotton buying centres.
He noted that the government has already allocated Ksh200 million that will be used to purchase cotton from farmers.
“We have spoken to governs that each county have at least a ginnery so that cotton it comes to Rivatex when ready for use. The ginnery will also employ our youths,” said the Industrialization PS.
RIVATEX Managing Director Prof Thomas Kipkurgat notes that there are at least 24 counties that can grow cotton.
However, farmers are yet to produce enough to meet the demand for the company’s production, forcing it to import up to 80 percent of its raw materials.
“We require 36k bales of cotton which is about 7.2 million kilograms for our operations. This basically means we need at least 100,000 acres of cotton which we don’t have enough yet,” said the RIVATEX MD.
For the last 10 years, the government has invested at least Ksh7 billion in the modernization of the Eldoret-based textile company that has since resumed operations, employing over 1,200
