Embakasi MP James Gakuya PHOTO/Courtesy
By Vincent Munga
Foreign investors that have followed right procedures in setting their businesses in the country should be protected by the government of the day, this is according to National Assembly’s Trade, Industries and Cooperatives Committee.
Committee chairman James Gakuya says his team will make recommendations that will take care of the interests of local and foreign investors.
“While the government has a mandate to protect local traders, no law criminalises the setting up of foreign business in the country,” he said.
Gakuya who was addressing members of the press after meeting with the Ministry of Investment, Trade & Industry, and the China Square Management, said the country cannot demonize the Chinese investor when it failed to regulate any other foreign investors who have set business in the country.
According to him, the government will only salvage local traders if it aligns regulations where it demarcates businesses and reserve some to local traders.
“At this particular level, we can allow the investor to do manufacturing all the way to dealership but at the point of retailer, then we can put caveats there. Until we put such regulations in place, we cannot criminalise anybody if they have complied to the set standards in the country,” he said.
China Square director Cheng Lei told the committee the investment has benefited 154 employees where 150 of them are Kenyans while the remaining four are Chinese.
The Ministry was represented by Principal Secretaries Alfred K’ombundo (Trade) and Abubakar Hassan Abubakar (Investment Promotion).
The Kenya Investment Promotion Act, which sets conditions for foreign investors, requires an investment to be beneficial to the country through job openings, transfer of new skills or technology, or the use of local raw materials or services.
