Over 40, 000 Kenyans have been employed by companies with their roots in Sri Lanka, the country’s envoy to Kenya, Ambassador Kana Kananathan has said.

Kananathan said Sri Lanka, a country in South Asia, was committed to supporting the Kenyan government in its quest of creating jobs for citizens in a bid of solving the challenge of unemployment in the country.

“Our brothers and sisters from Sri Lanka have done an amazing job setting up factories in the Export Processing Zone (EPZ). Sri Lanka companies have employed 20, 000 Kenyans at the zone and they are expanding,” Kananathan said.

He spoke when he officiated the launching of the one million tree planting exercise initiative at EPZ, Athi River in Machakos County on February 1.

The convoy said 100,000 trees will be planted in the zone, while 900, 000 others will be planted in the Karura forest.

The trees were donated to the Kenyan government by three Sri Lankan companies located in the zone.

“The three companies are the first ones in EPZ to take the challenge given by President William Ruto to plant trees so as to improve the environment. So, we must commend and thank them for the initiative that they have taken,” Kananathan said.

“They have started today with 100,000 trees and they are giving out a further 900, 000 trees to be planted in Karura forest,” he said.

Kananathan said the initiative was in line with the Kenyan president’s nationwide campaign to plant 15 billion trees by the end of 2032.

“So, we want to support the Sri Lankan community in Kenya. We want to support this initiative to make EPZ green and increase forest cover,” Kananathan said.

He said the Sri Lankan investors at the zone had pledged to donate the trees in one to two weeks’ time.

Kananathan said the good business environment at EPZ had attracted Sri Lanka investors to Kenya.

He said there was good infrastructure development and a young, skilled and highly educated Kenyan workforce that investors from Sri Lanka find beneficial to their investments at EPZ and generally in the country.

The envoy said Sri Lanka was also collaborating with the Kenyan government to improve the coffee industry.

He said they were committed to improving the quality and quantity of coffee that was being exported from Kenya to the global market.

This he said was intended to improve the country’s economy and the livelihoods of the coffee farmers.

EPZA Board Chairman Ben Oluoch Olunya lauded Sri Lanka for its investors’ continuous support to help the Kenyan government find jobs for the unemployed populace.

Olunya affirmed that more than 40,000 Kenyans had been employed by investors from Sri Lanka across the country.

He said EPZ had a population of over 70,000 employees currently.

“There are investors from other parts of the world who have invested at the EPZ,” Olunya said.

He said the EPZ program was good and one of the president’s key cornerstones in the country’s development and employment.

Source: The Star