Kisumu residents want Kicomi revival plan hastened

Kisumu, Kenya: Reports of a possible revival of the Kisumu Cotton Mills (KICOMI), which collapsed in the early 1990s, have excited farmers and residents of Nyanza.

Thousands who depended on the company now want the process of reviving the firm hastened

Kisumu County Women representative Rose Nyamunga, who sits in the Finance, Planning and Trade committee of the National Assembly, said plans were at advanced stage to bring back to life the ginnery.

Nyamunga said the committee which also has Shakeel Shabir (Kisumu East MP) as a member was lobbying the national government to reclaim and revive the plant. She said the government was already willing to pump in Sh500 million "to set revival on course."

Nyamunga said the plan entailed using the concept employed to take back Rift Valley Textiles (Rivatex) whose restoration has attracted massive funding, the latest being Sh3 billion credit from Import (Exim) Bank of India and a Sh600 million World Bank funding to Moi University which manages its operation.

"Those who bought the plant were given a period over which they were to revive it, they have failed to do so. We are therefore engaging the government to see that Kicomi is back on its feet."

Nyamunga said push for revival of the plant, which is currently used as a parking yard by truckers, was in line with planned ban on secondhand clothes slated for 2018.