President William Ruto on Tuesday, October 27, 2026, broke ground for a Sh70 billion clinker and cement plant by Devki Group at Ngaaie in Mwingi North, Kitui County, a project meant to cut reliance on imports and add a new player to Kenya’s increasingly crowded cement market.
The plant, being developed through Devki’s National Cement Company Limited, will be Kitui County’s first cement manufacturing facility. It will process the region’s limestone deposits into clinker, the key ingredient in cement, and finished cement.
Devki Group Executive Chairman Narendra Raval said the plant is planned to have an annual capacity of three million tonnes. It is expected to be completed by August 2027, with commercial operations targeted for mid-2027.
On jobs, Ruto said construction would create 4,000 jobs, while Raval said the factory would employ about 3,000 Kenyans once running. Ruto asked Devki to work with technical and vocational training institutions to provide apprenticeships for young people and to give local suppliers, transporters and small businesses a place in the plant’s supply chain.
The president said the project had been delayed for almost 15 years by bureaucracy, brokers, extortionists and people demanding bribes or unauthorised stakes in ventures. He promised to protect investors from such interference.
Raval said the company had faced pressure from local leaders to put the plant at Mwingi rather than at Ngaaie, even though the raw materials were at the chosen site. Mining Cabinet Secretary Hassan Joho and Mwala MP Vincent Musyoka were among the leaders present.
Ruto also tied the plant to the demand expected from the planned Dangote refinery in Lamu, which he said would need more than two million tonnes of cement, about 20 percent of Kenya’s current national output.
The new factory enters a market that is growing and getting more competitive. Cement production reached 9.5 million tonnes in the first 11 months of 2025, up from 8.1 million tonnes a year earlier, while consumption rose to 9.3 million tonnes from 7.8 million. Other producers are also investing.
East African Portland Cement is carrying out a $200 million expansion, and Bamburi Cement, long the market leader, is now part of the Amsons Group. Devki already owns National Cement, which makes Simba Cement at Athi River, so the Kitui plant adds to its existing capacity rather than creating a new entrant.
