• Creation of industrial park was Wangamati's promises during the election campaigns.
• Former staff of Panpaper Mills to get compensation packages.
Image: BRIAN OJAMAA
One of Governor Wycliffe Wangamati’s flagship projects received a shot in the arm on Tuesday after Bungoma leaders and stakeholders backed plans to set up an industrial park.
The group had previously opposed the park because legal processes had not been followed. On Tuesday, they unanimously supported the park at a public participation forum at Minata Hotel in Webuye town.
Wangamati had, during the 2017 general elections campaigns, promised to set up the park to create employment for the youth.
He said Tuesday's meeting was meant to identify the people who will be displaced and how they will be resettled after their houses are demolished. A number of MCAs attended the forum.
The industrial park will occupy 103 acres on which 700 county-owned houses stand. At least 500 of the houses are occupied.
Most of the occupants are former employees of the defunct Panpaper Mills.
"We need to find alternative accommodation for this people and give them a resettlement package," Wangamati said.
The county assembly has allocated Sh63 million as seed capital for the park project. Some Sh10 million will be spent to relocate the affected families.
Tuesday's meeting was the first of a series of public forums intended to engage the public and get their input.
Wangamati said Webuye town was picked for the industrial park because of its proximity to the highway that leads to other East African countries. The access to water is good in Webuye and the town has the potential to generate its own power, Wangamati said.
"Up to 10,000 jobs will be created. If we do not do this, history will judge us very harshly."
The governor said an industrial park is key to promoting agro-processing, value addition and restoration of Webuye’s status as an industrial town.
Maraka MCA Ali Majani aka Balala commended the governor’s efforts to industrialise Webuye. Businesswoman Nafisa Abdi said the park will help revive Webuye which had turned into a ghost town after the fall of Panpaper Mills.
Residents supported the project and said it would turn around their fortunes and livelihoods.
In November last year, Wangamati held a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on the sidelines of the Blue Economy Conference in Nairobi. The Ugandan leader pledged to support Bungoma by linking it to investors.