Group wants stalled fish plant taken by state

A lobby group wants Wamagana fish plant in Nyeri transferred from the county government to the Kenya Fisheries Service to serve the region better.

The factory was intended to serve Central region counties. It was started in 2011 by Uhuru Kenyatta when he was the Finance minister.

Citizen Initiative, in a letter to Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri, says the county government is not interested in reviving the facility.

Director Wambugu Nyamu says the county government only pretends to do something when people make noise. He accuses the devolved unit of playing "too much politics with the factory".

The lobby says the KFS will ensure that all systems at the processing plant are operational to ensure the factory achieves its objective.

“That the Kenya Fisheries Service works with Aquacultural Association of Kenya as the farmers’ representative body and the Fish Cooperative Society,” the letter states.

The Sh61 million factory was built in 2011 by the national government. It was handed over to the county government but collapsed soon after test runs.

“It was one of the four factories set up in Kenya under the economic stimulus programme started by Uhuru Kenyatta while he was minister for Finance,” Nyamu said.

Nyeri was chosen after an aquaculture survey which showed its huge potential.

The county has 25 permanent rivers, 50 community dams and 57 streams flowing from Mt Kenya and Aberdares water towers.

“The factory has the capacity to process 12-15  tonnes of fish per week and can employ over 100 workers directly and support over 5,000 households directly, thus creating thousands of job opportunities,” Wambugu said.

 “This is a factory that was meant to serve a region (five counties), and create a  blue economy for the region,” stated Nyamu.

The national government spent close to Sh300 million to start fish farming in Nyeri.