Committee Formed To Facilitate Re-opening of KBL Plant in Kisumu

A joint committee has been formed between the Kenya Breweries Limited and the County Government of Kisumu to foresee the re-opening of KBL’s plant.

The Liaison and Delivery committee whose formation was announced by Kisumu Governor Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o will handle community engagement, issues management, information dissemination on employment and project updates.

“We are happy with KBL’s approach and the progress of the project. We appreciate the fact that problems will arise from time to time and we must always seek to solve the problems together,” said Prof Nyong’o when he announced the formation of the committee.

KBL Managing Director Jane Karuku welcomed the formation of the committee and said that the brewer was looking forward to becoming an integral part of Kisumu’s economic well-being.

“We have made a lot of progress at the new brewery site since July and we are delighted at the progress. We look forward to completing the construction works on schedule,” Ms. Karuku said.

Construction plans for the plant are on schedule with production set to commence next year.

According to Ms. Karuku, the new plant is set to provide an expanded market opportunity mainly for sorghum farmers in Nyanza. The plant will be heavily reliant on sorghum among other raw materials sourced from locals.

The revamped plant is going to cost KBL a total of 15 billion shillings and it will be producing Senator Keg, KBL’s low-end beer brand. The projected production capacity of the plant is one million hectoliters after five years of operation.

This project came with hope for the people of Kisumu as the plant is projected to create 1,500 direct jobs. Combined with the distribution and retail ends of the value chain, the new plant is expected to provide over 100,000 jobs.

Apart from the economic benefits, consumption of illicit alcohol in Kisumu is expected to reduce from 50 percent to 20 percent due to the availability of the low priced beer brand, Senator Keg.

The Kisumu plant started operations in 1984 but was closed due to improvements in beer production technology that helped create excess capacity in beer production at the Nairobi brewery. The Kisumu plant was then scaled down to a distribution point for wholesalers in the Western region. The closure of the plant led to massive job losses which contributed to an increase in the unemployment rate in the region.