President Ruto values Raval’s cement plant at $539 million

Kenyan tycoon Narendra Raval’s new cement plant in Kitui County is worth Sh70 billion ($539 million), Kenyan President William Ruto said, ahead of a groundbreaking ceremony he is leading on Tuesday.

Speaking at Tseikuru grounds in Mwingi North on Monday, Ruto said the factory being built by Raval’s Devki Group at Ngaaie would create 4,000 jobs, allAfrica reported. He urged young job seekers to prepare for work at the site.

His figure is well above the Sh50 billion ($385 million) value Devki has given for the project, which BA reported on Sunday. The gap has not been explained.

Ruto used the visit to warn people who demand bribes or shareholdings from investors. “Their days are over,” he said, according to the report. “We will make sure that Kenya becomes the best destination for investments.”

Labor Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua and several lawmakers joined the president on his tour of the Ukambani region, which ends with Tuesday’s ceremony.

The plant will use locally sourced materials to make clinker, the main ingredient in cement. Devki began construction in September and expects operations to start in mid-2027. It will be Kitui’s first cement factory and the county’s largest private investment.

Ruto also said that Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, once considered building a cement plant in Kitui before choosing Tanzania instead. He blamed the previous government for losing that investment.

The Kitui project is part of a wider push by Raval to make clinker in Kenya rather than import it. In 2024, his Cemtech unit opened a 6,000-ton-a-day clinker plant in West Pokot County. Kenya added a 17.5% levy on imported clinker in 2023, a policy that favors producers able to make their own.

That bet has put Raval at the center of a $600 million race among tycoons to build clinker capacity in East Africa.

Raval moved from India to Kenya in 1981 at age 19 and built Devki into one of the region’s biggest industrial groups. Its brands include Simba Cement, National Cement and Maisha Mabati, and it operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. His rapid growth has also brought tax disputes and political scrutiny.