[ol]
[li]Atlas Glass Company: Was biggest maker of glass bottles in Kenya. Left for Ethiopia due to high Power bills. Used to produce 2 Million crates of bottles every month serving Eastern Africa region.[/li][li]Yana Tyres manufacturer Sameer Africa Ltd shut down its Nairobi factory in 2016 after bruising competition from cheap tyres from China and India, which left it bleeding profusely. This saw hundreds of jobs lost.[/li][li]Cadbury Kenya also closed down manufacturing plants in Nairobi in 2014, shifting their bases to Egypt, where they said labour and power costs were lower.[/li][li]Eveready Batteries moved to Egypt and Indonesia[/li][li]Colgate Palmolive[/li][/ol]
Samsung wanted to build a factory in Kenya but opted for Egypt due to unreliable Power.
The list goes on. The main reason is ENERGY Costs and unregulated imports from China and India
Energy costs hatari. Why doesn’t the government think about this?
Kuna hydropower as their main energy source, which is also our main energy source.
How then is energy cheaper in Ethiopia than Kenya to the point that they are able to sell us cheaper power?
The dry cell was an 18th century wonder. It was the anchor product for Eveready at a time when over 80% of kenyans were not on grid power. The dry cell was a one-off product and the company thrived on the predatorial planned obsolescence industrial model to make itself a bluechip company. But 20th century advances made the company into a sad dinosaur because of its failure to adapt. The rural electrification initiative screwed eveready. New gadgets came with re=chargeable batteries which Eveready had no means of producing. Example is the mobile phone which incidentally had both radio and torch capabilities People also stopped buying torches and radios that require one-use Eveready batteries. cheaper and more widely available solar energy finished off the fossil. The value of the company is the prime land it still owns in Nakuru.
Gatheshas and mo1 own large parts of Kenya’s power industry which they continually use as an unprofitable cashcow. No mattwr how bad kenya power is doing they always somehow nanage to issue divideds
Yes Dry Cell is 100+ years old but we should have used the already existing factory and convert it to make Li-On Batteries or Solar panels.
Saa hii Toyota, VW and others have said that by 2035 they will stop making ICE cars and move over to EVs, they will use the same factories.
On the same breath do you know how many Agro processing sectors got closed ? Dozens. Pyrethrum In Nakuru and Nyandarua, Tanneries in Athi River, PanPaper Webuye, Sugar Mills, Sausage Factory iN Uplands Limuru, Bata Shoe (Currently underperforming) and many others. During Moi days there was an assembly line for Deskphones and PABX at Gilgil
There came a time when the political class would engineer the down fall of hitherto well performing companies so they could buy them at throw away prices and revive them. The downfall succeeded, but the revival failed.
Philips used to make bulbs in Kenya, they also left, now we have DP Light from China and Vitron Electronics are assembling TVs here in Kenya. But overall more have closed down than newly opened.
Bruh. Individual. He has non voting shares. The shares with real kojones are in the habds of dynasties. Plus dynasties don’t buy individually. They buy through multiple shell companies
High cost of power makes Kenya unfavorable to manufacturers, however you also have to factor technology and economies of scale in tyre and battery manufacturing that makes bit difficult to compete with Chinese manufacturers.
Eveready Kenya should have realised that they were in the energy storage business not just selling mawe ya tochi. They should have ventured into car batteries, solar batteries, solar panels, solar water pumps, wind generators, lithium batteries, inverters etc. Their competitors are still doing well because they diversified.
Kenya has some of the most reliable power in the world. Many companies, including flower companies, went to egypt and ethiopia thinking the countries were a better option then coups/protests happened in egypt and war in ethiopia. That said, Kenya should have the cheapest power since over 90% is from renewable sources ie hydro, geothermal, wind and solar, one the highest in the world. The IPP’s who produce only 7% are responsible for the mess and high cost of power and the earlier we got rid of them the better.
