Trade CS says litigation, bureaucracy eroding investor confidence

Protracted litigation, coupled with long procedures to start an industry in the country are eroding investor confidence and doubling the time taken to start production compared to neighboring countries.

The situation has been worsened by a law that requires public participation, an exercise that has seen capital projects barred from starting by the law courts.

Investment and Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui warned that the long procedure to start a capital project was hurting the country and giving neighboring countries a better platform.

Kinyanjui called on Parliament to re-examine the public-participation law to give the electorate and investors a win-win situation.

“When you come up with an idea, you first take it through public participation at the ministry, Parliament, then to the Senate, and if somebody goes to court, we take another five years,” he said.

Speaking during a tour of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Mai Mahiu, the CS said that many countries were outcome-focused, unlike Kenya.

“Many countries are outcome-focused but in Kenya we are more process-focused and you find that a very good project takes forever for it to be sold,” he said.

He assured that his Ministry and stakeholders would be holding monthly meetings in the SEZ to ensure that it was fully operational and all challenges addressed.

Kinyanjui said that the government was committed to making sure that the SEZ was 40 per cent operational by the end of 2026, with projections of employing over 50,000 people.

He regretted that the country was importing a lot of pharmaceutical products, yet the formulation of drugs could be done locally, thus saving the country billions of shillings.

“We are impressed with the progress so far, and we will keep aligning so that any issue that arises, whether it is a power or social issue, we are able to address it in real time,” he said.

Special Economics Authority CEO Ken Chelule, noted that two years ago there was only one investor, but this had not risen to 19.

He said that the two government agencies, including the Kenya Bureau of Standards, were on-site building a regional testing centre for automotive vehicles.

“On electricity, Kenya Power, Ketraco are working on something called a double ring, so that in the future when one line goes down, the other one comes on,” he said.