Francis Muli
The government has announced that the Kenya Meat Commission (KMC) plant in Athi River, Machakos County will resume full operation today.
The plant has been undergoing a facelift since it was handed over to the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in September 2020, after years of loss-making.
“From the beginning, we knew the takeover and revamp was not our usual task. We also knew from the start that failure was not an option. The strategic guidance to Defence ministry was to revamp operations and production with the objective of ensuring the commission’s survival,” said Defence Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma.
The Commission had been operating below par, grappling with financial issues, only slaughtering an estimated 200 cows per week.
With the new management, the facility will now slaughter at least 1000 cows a week and payments will be made in 72 hours.
In its last financial update, KMC indicated that it sold products worth Ksh127.5 million in the nine months ended March 2019.
At that time, it had debts worth Ksh1.1 billion, which include livestock farmers’ dues of Ksh254.4 million Ksh300 million owed to the government.
The resumption of KMC’s operations is part of the ‘Badge of Honour’ for KDF, which will be launching projects in the next 15 days in preparation for Madaraka Day celebrations.
Read: LSK Sues Agriculture CS Peter Munya Over The Transfer Of KMC To The Ministry Of Defence
“I can now confirm that the facility is revamped, systems tested and ready to contribute to the national food security,” said Juma.
“In the next 15 days, the Ministry of Defence, in line with its mandate to aid civil authorities in executing directives of the government, will launch a number of projects that contribute to the national development agenda,” the CS said.
Also, President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to award the National Defence University a charter on May 27.
“This is a significant addition to the growing ecosystem of centres of excellence in training within the ministry. Without a well-grounded human resource at the strategic policy level, any government would not effectively pursue its desired development path,” she said.
Read: Kenya Meat Commission Transfered To The Ministry Of Defence
Other projects on the line-up include the 217km Nakuru-Kisumu metre gauge railway line, the Kenya Shipyards Limited and a re-launch of the blue economy in Lake Victoria.
“Regional East African Co-operation commerce is set for renewal by the movement of ferries and other marine vessels plying Kisumu (Kenya)-Jinja (Uganda)-Musoma (Tanzania) ports,” the ministry states.
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