Kenya has secured a new investor to establish a $254.4 million cement factory in Kitui County, with construction expected to begin in November 2026.
The development followed President William Ruto’s media engagement in Mombasa on Thursday, October 1, according to local publication, Kenyans.co.ke.
Ruto said this comes seven years after Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote first made a move to establish the factory but was frustrated by Kenya’s previous administration’s demands, forcing him to move the investment to Tanzania.
According to Ruto the new yet-to-be-named investor plans to visit Kitui in November to officially break ground for the factory.
He said the November groundbreaking is expected to mark the start of construction, moving the project beyond the planning stage.
Ruto explained that the factory could have been established earlier, recalling that Dangote had previously sought to set up a cement plant in Kitui but did not go through with the investment after what he described as frustration from demands placed on investors. He said Dangote eventually chose to invest in Tanzania instead.
According to Ruto, his administration is working to prevent similar issues by creating a more favorable environment for investors while ensuring Kenyans benefit through jobs and other economic opportunities. He also said demands for shares and bribes had previously discouraged major investments in the country.
The development comes days after Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote broke ground for a major expansion of his refinery project in Nigeria, highlighting his continued investment in large-scale industrial projects across Africa despite not going through with the previously proposed cement factory in Kitui.
By October 2016, Dangote Cement controlled 22% of Tanzania’s cement market after using lower prices to gain market share. In March 2016, the publication also reported that the company had added factories in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia over the preceding two years as it expanded its production footprint across Africa.
On the Nigerian side, the development comes against the backdrop of Dangote Cement’s ongoing expansion of its cement operations in the country.
The report is relevant to the latest development in Kenya because both stories involve major cement investments linked to the wider expansion of cement production in Africa. However, the Nigerian project concerns Dangote’s existing operations, while the Kenyan development involves a new investor for the proposed Kitui factory.
