The Ministry of East African Community (EAC) Affairs, led by Cabinet Secretary Peninah Malonza, has begun the reconstruction and expansion of the Ewaso Ngiro Tannery and Leather Factory in Narok County in order to boost the country's leather product processing and create more jobs.
During a visit to the factory, CS Malonza announced that the ministry will unveil new equipment to boost production.
"As we all know the hides and skins have been thrown to the dogs for a long time and therefore this is a factory that is going to utilize the hides and skins in this region."
"We are already doing expansion of the factory. The most exciting thing is that one hide can produce more than 45 pairs of shoes and I'm sure you can see the economic value of us utilising this raw material...," said CS Malonza.
The CS noted that when fully operational the factory is expected to create 500 direct and over 5000 indirect employment opportunities.
"We are looking at producing shoes for our security officers in the country as well as for our schoolgoing children which is a very huge market," she said.
The factory, which was established more than a decade ago as a joint project of the national government and Narok County, uses hides and skins to produce leather.
The multimillion-dollar factory aims to provide employment for small hide and skin traders in Narok and the neighboring counties of Kajiado and Samburu.