Thursday, December 21, 2017

Cheap building materials maker gears for production

Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed (left) with Li Xuhang, the Chinese deputy chief of mission, at the China Wu Yi Construction Company complex site in Athi River on Dec 21, 2017. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NMG
Industrialisation secretary Adan Mohamed (left) with Li Xuhang, the Chinese deputy chief of mission, at the China Wu Yi Construction Company complex site in Athi River on Dec 21, 2017. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NMG 
By JOSEPH NGUNJIRI
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A Mavoko-based modern building technology material factory and supermarket is set to start production in March as the government pushes to cut the cost of housing by 40 per cent.
Trade, Industry and Cooperative secretary Adan Mohamed, Thursday visited the China Wuyi Construction Company complex in Athi River, Machakos where the Sh10 billion housing materials supermarket is under construction.
The complex will occupy 23,850 metres square. It will exclusively deal in pre-cast components for building residential houses.
“This technology will cut down the time required for constructing residential houses by more than 30 per cent,” said Mr Mohamed.
“All the materials, including cement and steel will be sourced locally. The company will also be employing locals.”
The technology, said the CS, will not only cut down on labour, it will also reduce wastage and improve efficiency and quality of buildings.
“With this technology, cases of sub-standard materials that bring about sub-standard buildings will be a thing of the past. People wishing to construct houses will only need to come here with their specifications and get everything from here,” he said.
The pre-cast housing components include slabs, columns and staircases. It will later produce household furnishings.
The project is as a result of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit to China, where a number of deals were struck.
In his Jamhuri Day speech, Mr Kenyatta said his government’s agenda in the second term will be of the ‘Big Four’: food security, affordable housing, manufacturing and inexpensive healthcare to accelerate development.
Li Xuhang, the deputy chief of mission at the Chinese Embassy, said the project is part of the China’s co-operation effort aimed at improving the industrial capacity of four African countries.

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