VISION 2030 Delivery Secretariat turns attention to the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) Sector in Kenya

Mr. Mugo Kibati’, Director General, Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Secretariat lead a High powered Secretariat delegation to one of the most active Micro and Small Industrial Cluster known as the Kamukunji Jua Kali Association in Nairobi on 2nd May 2012. Kamukunji Jua Kali Association is one of the 800 Primary Jua Kali Associations in Kenya representing the Metal Fabricators Sub-Sector and is located along landies road on a five (5) acre plot with a membership of more than five thousand (5000) artisans engaged in the production of diverse range of Metal products i.e., wheelbarrows, nails, institutional stoves, shovels etc The manufacturing actors in the MSE Sector are known as the Jua kali artisans operating in around 18 subsectors covering: Woodworkers/carpentry, Wood crafts, Metal and Metal works, Soapstone crafts, Ceramics, Plastic and Plastic Products, Leather Production, Textile products(with several subsections i.e. screen printing etc),Clay/Poetry crafts, Beekeeping, Mechanical Engineering ,food processing, Electrical/ electronic etc. Discussions during the visit focused on technology transfer, innovation, standardization and patenting of MSE products to international benchmarks. The above will contribute to value addition in agriculture, improvement on productivity and promotion of the micro and small industries as the future large industries in Kenya. Issues of the envisioned MSE industrial parks were also discussed where the MSE leaders present suggested that minimum standards should be development for the existing MSI clusters aimed at declaring them micro and small industrial parks According to the vision 2030 popular version, chapter four (4) talks about “the economic vision and strategy: adding value to our products and services”. Among the six key sectors mentioned in the said chapter i.e. 4.3 is “a better and more inclusive wholesale and retail trade sector”. This involves strengthening informal trade through investment in infrastructure, training and linkage to wider local and global markets Item 4.4 of the same chapter talks about manufacturing for the region market and the flagship projects for manufacturing being: development of a strategy for the establishment of at least 2 special economic clusters and the development and creation of at least 5 small and medium enterprise SME industrial parks. This was the beginning of a national wide engagement with the MSE sector and the next focus will be towards a better and more inclusive wholesale and retail trade sector. Present during the above ceremony were: Dr. Omar Mohamed, the Director of the Economic pillar at Vision 2030, Eng. Maliti and Mr. Kariuki among others, Mr. Muikamba, Chairman, Kamukunji Jua Kali Association, Mr. R. Muthama, Chairman, Nairobi Handcraft Association, Mr. G. Wairegi, Chair, Shauri Moyo Furniture Jua Kali Association, Mr. Dawa , Secretary general Kamukunji Jua Kali Association, Miss Lydia Njoroge, Program Director, SMES, East Africa Mr. Richard Muteti, CEO, MSE Federation, etc On behalf of the MSE Sector, we thank the Director General and his team most sincerely for taking time off to visit the Micro entrepreneurs based in Kamukunji Jua Kali Association