Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) is set to be established in Kakamega County to serve the larger Western Region.
County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Agriculture, Livestock, fisheries, and cooperatives Benjamin Andama said the project will be supported by the County Government.
Andama said they are in talks with KMFRI to facilitate the project and the county government will provide land for the project.
“The Centre will undertake the construction and operationalization roles while the county government will offer land for construction,” he said.
The CECM said the project has already received substantial support from the World Bank which intends to extend the services to other regions under the Blue Economy program.
“We recently visited KMFRI offices in Mombasa for benchmarking purposes and held talks with the Institution’s Officials led by the CEO James Njiru,” he said.
He said the project will involve the construction of a Fish feed processing plant, Fingerlings production and Aqua Laboratory.
The CECM also revealed that they will offer capacity building to farmers as well as linking them to available markets.
Kakamega County has made tremendous strides in the promotion of the blue economy through the enhancement of fish farming.
By John Ochanda
