Firm eyes 300 jobs with new Sh1.2bn Lamu cotton factory

Thika Cloth Mills Limited targets 300 direct and indirect jobs from a Sh1.2 billion cotton ginning and oil extraction factory to be built jointly with the State in Lamu County.

The factory will have the capacity to process up to 20 million kilogrammes of cotton per year sourced from local farmers through structured contract farming models.

“What we launching today is more than a factory, it is a bold signal of Kenya’s industrial future,” said Trade Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui at the launch of the project on Tuesday.

“Let Lamu become a benchmark for county-based industrial transformation. Let this investment revive local production, create dignified jobs, and signal the resurgence of our domestic value chains.”

The Kenya Development Corporation (KDC) will support the project to access long-term and working capital, as well as purchase machinery through the Exim Bank of India.

“This initiative is a major boost to cotton farmers and cooperative societies in the coastal region. It provides structured markets, stable incomes and strengthens cooperative economies” said Investment Promotion Principal Secretary Abubakar Hassan.

Cotton in Kenya is grown in the semi-arid regions of the former Eastern, Central, Nyanza, Coast, Western, and Rift Valley provinces.

“The factory will produce not just garments or oil but an economic opportunity,” said KDC Director Benjamin Muketha.

During value addition, the main products are lint Cotton (40 percent) and seed (60 percent).

After further processing, the seed produces oil and seedcake among other products. The former is used as human food and the latter as animal feed.

The latest trade data compiled by the US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shows that Kenya imported used clothes and textiles valued at Sh38.5 billion in 2023, overtaking Nigeria which has a population four-and-a-half times bigger.

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