China Wu Yi to employ 800 Kenyans at Athi River

800 job positions are to open at China Wu Yi’s Sh10bn housing materials complex in Athi River, in the Machakos County of Kenya.

The Chinese conglomerate began construction of the 29.6 acres base in September 2016, and have announced that the project is set for completion in March 2017.

The China Wu Yi Kenya Building, Industrialisation Research, Development, and Production Base and Construction Material Supermarket is part of China’s “Belt and Road” policy, which was initiated to prioritise infrastructure and industrial projects.

The 75,970sqm will include an exhibition area, office block, dormitory, service block, building material supermarket, and a hotel.

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“We intend to employ 800 locals at the base once it’s complete. We settled on establishing it in Kenya owing to the country’s good bilateral relations with China and because it is an economic hub,” reported Yihua Lin, the Executive Deputy General Manager at China Wu Yi in Kenya.

The plant is being built by the company’s local subsidiary China Wu Yi Precast (Kenya) Company Limited, who predominantly work with residential buildings and traffic engineering precast components.

The supermarket, taking up 23,850spm of the site, will stock stones, ceramic tiles, bathroom appliances, electrical materials, construction hardware, lamps, kitchen furniture, and more, all stocked from the Fujian Province in China.

“Establishing of the base is significant in meeting the construction requirements and Kenya Vision 2030 which provides for adequate housing and reasonable standards of sanitation,” said James Macharia, Transport Secretary.