President Uhuru Kenyatta has expressed his admiration of slum dwellers who constructed a Ksh300 million company from scratch.
Speaking during the official opening of the Neema Abattoir in Lucky Summer, Nairobi, on Wednesday, May 26, Uhuru noted that the company started in 1973 in Kiamaiko.
He further noted that the company kept expanding to over 3,000 members who raised the requisite Ksh300 million to expands its offerings.
“You started small in 1973 here in Kiamaiko and you have been consistent. Today together as 3,000 members you raised Ksh300 million to put up this huge investment. This is not an easy job and I congratulate you Mr Chairman together with your members.
“I am happy because you have demonstrated that you have the capability to put up an investment like this. What you need from us is water, electricity and roads which I assure you will be done by my government,” stated Uhuru.
As a result of their resilience, the head of state continues creating a conducive environment for business to thrive with the aim of creating jobs.
He promised to expand reforms being experienced in the coffee and tea sectors to the meat sector.
“We cannot have a situation where someone has reared his livestock and when the time comes to sell them they are offered peanuts, and because someone has trekked for long he just gives in to any price.
“As a government, we will be putting up slaughter houses in various places and I know together with those being put up by private investors, farmers will not fail to get good prices,” he added.
Neema is a slaughterhouse owned by 3,000 livestock farmers and has an installed daily slaughter capacity of 12,000 and 6,000 small stock (goats/sheep) for local and export markets respectively.
Over 85 percent of their products are sold overseas.
The majority of individuals who own a stake in the company reside in the slum areas of Kiamaiko, Mukuru Kwa Njenga and Mukuru Kayaba where he promised to extend public amenities and good infrastructure.
“I want to assure Nairobi residents that apart from the clean water services which we have provided through the drilling of boreholes in slums, we are now undertaking another project of tarmacking 400 kilometres of roads in the informal settlements so that our people in Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Mukuru Kayaba, Kiamaiko, Kibera and others will be able to move with ease,” he noted.
Neema Livestock and Slaughtering Investment Company (NLSIC) is a private limited company that was registered in 2015 and deals with the processing of goat, lamb, and beef.
