State steps up efforts to revive leather sector with export plan

Livestock Development Principal Secretary Jonathan Mueke says the government is working on securing new international markets for locally produced hides and skins.

The PS was reacting to complaints from dealers that there were no markets outside Kenya and few local buyers.

“Last week President William Ruto sent me to Italy to look for a leather market and while there, I visited global fashion brands, including Gucci and they said they do not want hides and skins but finished leather to be able to make products and sell in the entire world,” said Mr Mueke.

He spoke recently when he attended the graduation of 75 slaughters and skin graders or flayers based at Kiamaiko slaughterhouse in Huruma, Nairobi.

The slaughterhouse produces skins from goats and sheep, while the Dagoretti slaughterhouse produces hides from cows.

The flayers had been trained through the Kiamaiko Flayers Quality Improvement Programme, which was initiated by the National Government, Nairobi County and Reddamac Leather Center Ltd.

He said the government is working with 16 Technical Vocational Education and Training (Tvets) institutions to develop a curriculum for leather technicians across the country.

Apart from the 75 beneficiaries of the State-sponsored programme, he said so far the government has trained 2,139 flayers across the country in the last year and bought the training equipment for the Dagoretti slaughterhouse.

The PS challenged hides and skin dealers to make good quality leather without knife cuts through proper flaying and also deliver enough quality leather to local tanneries.

Mr Mueke said the national government plans to develop a vibrant leather sub-sector through Kenya Leather Investment Park, which is expected to be launched next year in September.

“It is sitting on 100 acres of land in Kenanie, Mavoko in Machos County. We have constructed a common effluent treatment plant and already 32 investors have written to us showing interest to build leather factories to manufacture finished goods here and stop us sending leather abroad,” he said.

He said flayers from the Dagoretti slaughter centre will also be trained to be able to come out with high-quality hides. The training programme will later be expanded to other counties.

The PS challenged the flayers to form associations to benefit from government funding.

“My State Department has Sh200 million fund in this year’s budget to mop up all the hides and skins to take to other leather market dealers,” he said.

The PS said leather is one of the priority value chains in Kenya Kwanza’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta), with the government targeting 120,000 jobs, up from the current 21,000, which would inject Sh100 billion into the economy annually by 2027 from the current Sh20 million.

According to Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra) Policy Brief No.20/2022-2023, Kenya’s leather exports consist of semi-processed tanned “wet blue” leather at 90 per cent, raw hides and skins at (five per cent), finished leather (two per cent) and three per cent leather footwear. The latter is the biggest leather goods sub-sector in the country, while handbags are the most competitive.

The PS said the government is committed to reviving the leather sub-sector by making sure manufacturers get the raw materials they need and also giving them tax breaks and zero-rated imported chemicals.

Reddamac Leather Center Ltd Chief Executive Robert Njoka said the quality of skins in Kiamaiko slaughterhouse, which is the biggest producer of skins in the region, has improved significantly.

 “All the tanneries in the country prefer skins from Kiamaiko, showing that the training journey of flayers started a year ago has been a worthy cause, considering the training of flayers is an area we have overlooked over time,” said Mr Njoka, lauding the power of the public-private partnership (PPP) model used in the programme.

Prof. Ratemo Michieka, chairman of the National Research Fund (NRF), challenged the PS to push for increased funding for research in the leather industry.

He said the leather industry could create 500,000-700,000 jobs in the entire value chain with the right support. He lauded Garissa University, whose Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof Irura Ng’ang’a, said the varsity has started developing a curriculum for flayers, slaughterhouse operators, and traders.

“I challenge the university to think of giving Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) certification to flayers after graduation. I challenge other universities in Turkana, Baringo and western Kenya to imitate Garissa University as they benchmark with it,” he said.