A new investor, Mamba Cement Limited, plans to build a cement grinding and blending plant at Awasi in Kisumu County’s Nyando Sub-County, which would become the second cement factory in the area.
The plant would have capacity to process about 180 tonnes of cement a day and is estimated to cost Sh59,983,000, according to an environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) listed by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA). Business Daily reported the plans on Saturday.
“Mamba Cement Limited is committed to supporting Kenya’s growing demand for cement by establishing a modern cement manufacturing plant,” the company says in the study.
Site and design
The factory is planned along Awasi Quarry Road, off the Kisumu-Nairobi Highway, on four parcels in the Border II sub-location. The site covers about five acres, according to the assessment.
The plant is designed to run on a 24-hour schedule using a closed-circuit ball mill. Its main inputs will be limestone, gypsum, pozzolana, clinker, raw water and electricity. The study also lists administrative offices, a weighbridge, a product silo, a dust collector, a classifier and a power house among the planned facilities.
The company says the project will create jobs for more than 30 skilled and unskilled workers during construction. The assessment does not give a figure for permanent jobs once the plant is running.
Mamba plans to sell its cement in local, national and regional markets, mostly in Western Kenya, with finished products moved along the Kisumu-Nairobi highway.
An industrial corridor
The company says the site was chosen for its access to raw materials and existing industry.
“The project site lies in proximity to several established quarries and industrial facilities, including Gogni (Seabud) Quarry, Stone Field Quarry, Vic Block, SBI Awasi, H. Young Quarry, Rai Cement, and Prime Steel Mills,” the company said.
Rai Cement, the only other cement factory in Awasi, was set up by industrialist Sarbjit Singh Rai in 2017 to serve the North Rift, South Rift, Nyanza and Western regions. It was the first cement grinding plant in western Kenya, as others were concentrated around Machakos and the Coast, Business Daily reported.
The Nyando belt also hosts steel-making, sugar production and quarrying.
Licence still pending
The assessment is not an environmental licence. Its conclusion says the project may proceed only after concerns are addressed, mitigation measures are put in place and NEMA issues a licence, Streamline Feed noted in its review of the document.
The study describes water access in Awasi as constrained, with households relying on boreholes, rainwater and vendors. It recommends that the project avoid community boreholes, obtain abstraction permits and consider rainwater harvesting and wastewater recycling.
It also identifies dust from grinding and material handling, noise, vehicle traffic and runoff as risks, and proposes dust collectors, emissions monitoring, covered loads and traffic controls.
According to the assessment, a public meeting was held at the site on October 31, 2025.
Cement demand rising
The plans come as cement demand grows. Consumption crossed one million tonnes in a month for the first time in July, reaching 1.008 million tonnes, up 13.5 percent from 888,003 tonnes in July 2025, according to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data cited by Business Daily. Production rose to 1.029 million tonnes from 906,979 tonnes.
Rai Cement’s owner also plans a cement and clinker plant in Kieni, Nyeri County, according to a regulatory disclosure reported by the newspaper.
