Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary (CS) Moses Kuria on Tuesday, November 8, revealed plans by the government to build an exclusive airport on idle private land.
Speaking during the launch of the Green Triangle Cement, CS Kuria announced that the airport will be strictly a cargo airport dedicated to the export of horticultural products from the country.
He explained that the existing airports predominantly served passenger flights and that as such limited the capacity to allow frequent cargo flights - restricting exports to a specific time schedule.
"We have a huge problem with flights; we cannot even export our flowers, avocados, and vegetables because we do not have enough cargo flights from this country.
"We are discussing with a number of partners to use the idle land we have within East African Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) to develop Kenya's first exclusive cargo airport right here," Kuria stated.
The CS explained that East African Portland, which owns the land, would reap huge benefits from the airport if the project is actualised.
"I want to assure East African Portland of my personal commitment to turning the company around so as create more job opportunities as well as boosting the growth of our country's economy," Kuria vowed.
In addition, he joked about how he convinced the management of the EAPCC, to agree with the proposal after lengthy discussions with the ministry.
"Last week I asked Oliver to choose between us using the land profitably to help ourselves or he allows me to transfer you to the Ministry of Lands," the outspoken CS teased.
In an interview on Citizen TV on Wednesday, November 2, he reiterated that increasing exports was one of the fastest ways to recover the economy in his famous 'We manufacture or we perish, we export or we perish' declaration.'
The Trade boss opined that the country needed to regulate the importation of goods which provided unfair competition to those locally produced in the country.
Kuria has been deliberate in improving trade in the country specifically focusing on creating value addition in the manufacturing industry while creating jobs for Kenyans.
