Across Vihiga County in western Kenya, massive granite boulders dot the landscape, spilling across hillsides, farmlands and open fields. They are silent markers of a vast mineral resource long seen as both a blessing and a missed economic opportunity.
This is because beneath the rugged, and sometimes mossy, surfaces of the boulders, or miamba as they are popularly known locally, lie reddish and greyish stones, which have for years been quarried in small quantities by artisanal miners and sold cheaply in raw form.
These blocks are then cut, polished and processed into high-value construction materials such as floor tiles, countertops, wall cladding, gravestones, terrazzo chips and ballast-products which fetch far higher returns than the raw blocks currently sold by artisanal miners.
This has been happening as demand for finished stone products in Kenya’s construction sector continues to rise.
Nearly two years ago, the government sought to change that story by proposing to set up a granite processing plant to use controlled mechanical cutting techniques to minimise waste.
By setting up the country’s first large-scale granite processing plant in Ebuyangu, West Bunyore Ward, State officials pledged to turn Vihiga’s geological abundance into a hub of industrial activity: crushing, trimming, grounding and polishing the raw stone into finished construction materials valued for their strength, longevity and aesthetic appeal.
The project was also meant to feed into the Affordable Housing Programme under President William Ruto’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA), lowering construction costs by reducing reliance on imports.
Today, however, that vision has stalled. The government says it is considering re-opening the search for a private investor to revive the Sh2.5 billion Vihiga granite processing plant after the initial contractor failed to begin construction, leaving behind an idle 10-acre site and raising fresh concerns about the execution of Kenya’s mining value-addition strategy.
Secretary of Mines and CEO of the Mining Rights Board in the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Thomas Mutwiwa, said the project has effectively collapsed, forcing the government back to the drawing board.
‘We may have to go back to the drawing board and look for another investor,’ Mr Mutwiwa said. ‘We gave out the contracts. The procedures were followed, but this contractor simply could not deliver, could not begin the works as we had agreed.’
The project had been awarded to Equip Agencies Limited in July 2024 under a Build-Operate-Transfer (BoT) model following competitive tendering that required bidders to demonstrate financial capacity and technical experience in mining or mineral processing.
At the time, expectations were high. During the groundbreaking ceremony on July 27, 2024, Vihiga Governor Wilber Ottichilo described the project as a long-awaited catalyst for local economic transformation.
The plant, the governor said, would create hundreds of jobs, boost the value of locally mined granite, and provide a ready market for artisanal miners who have traditionally operated on the margins of the formal economy.
Then Mining Principal Secretary Elijah Mwangi underscored the scale of the opportunity, citing preliminary geological data indicating that granite deposits in Vihiga span more than 60,000 acres-estimated at 50 trillion tonnes.
The facility was also positioned as a landmark in Kenya’s mining sector, the first of its kind, designed to anchor a government policy shift from exporting raw minerals to processing them locally.
Under the BoT arrangement, Equip Agencies was expected to mobilise the full Sh2.5 billion investment, construct and operate the plant, recover its costs over time, and eventually transfer ownership back to the government.
To qualify, the firm was required to submit audited financial statements for three years and demonstrate experience in value-added industries.
Nearly two years later, the site remains dormant.
There is no construction, no equipment, and no visible sign that a project once billed as transformative ever moved beyond the ceremonial launch. The failure has raised questions about the robustness of investor vetting, the enforcement of contractual obligations, and the risks inherent in relying on private capital to drive industrial policy.
The Vihiga setback comes even as the government pursues similar value-addition projects across the country with mixed results.
In Kakamega, a gold refinery intended to formalise and monetise artisanal gold production is nearing completion, but has also faced some delays. Mr Mutwiwa said the project is about 80 percent complete, having missed its initial June 2025 deadline due to legal and contractual challenges.