President William Ruto flew to Uganda Sunday morning, November 23, to grace the launch of a mega project.
He joined President Yoweri Museveni in Tororo, Eastern Uganda, where the Kenyan-born Devki Group of Companies was launching a new base for its network of steel plants.
Accompanying Ruto to the event were members of his government, among them Energy and Petroleum Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi, Tourism and Wildlife CS Rebecca Miano, and the Kenyan diplomatic mission in Uganda led by High Commissioner Joash Maangi.
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame had also been slated to attend but was yet to arrive at the time of this publication.
The new factory will be strategically based in Tororo to leverage the hundreds of millions of tonnes of iron ore deposits to manufacture steel products.
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With the oncoming development, at least 15,000 Ugandans will benefit with direct jobs immediately the mills start running.
This adds to the growing network of Devki Group subsidiaries.
Headquartered in Ruiru, Kiambu County, Devki Group of Companies deals primarily in building materials, particularly steel, cement, and roofing products.
The steel plant in Tororo will be Devki's second investment in Uganda, adding to the cement plant established in 2018 in the same region.
In Kenya, Devki has a presence in strategic locations, including Ruiru, Nairobi's Industrial Area, Athi River, Mombasa and Kwale.
The company announced that besides Kenya and Uganda, it would be establishing another base in Rwanda, where at least 3,100 locals would be employed.
Ruto is on record hailing the Devki Group over its role in developing Kenya's economy.
In one of his public engagements, he noted that through its cocktail of undertakings in the past five years, the company had pumped at least $1 billion dollars (equivalent to KSh150 billion) into the economy.
The president further revealed that Devki Group remits at least KSh 2 billion monthly to the government as taxes, with a yearly revenue of KSh 24 billion to the government.
Besides the taxes, the company, which was established in 1986, pays KSh 1 billion to the country's power utility firm, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, as its electricity bill.
