For decades, the word mabati (corrugated iron) carried a specific social weight in Kenya, almost exclusively associated with low-income, rural housing or temporary structures.
However, if you drive through Kenya’s burgeoning high-end estates today, you’ll see vibrant and architecturally stunning roofs that are a far cry from the rusted sheets of the past.
By leveraging emerging technologies, local manufacturers are today delivering high-quality, aesthetically pleasing roofing materials that remain affordable for all income levels. The latest generation of iron sheets largely features aluminium and zinc coating that eliminates traditional problems such as rusting and fading, ensuring that water harvesting remains safe for consumption.
Indeed, a series of targeted State and industry interventions have successfully boosted domestic production of quality roofing mabati. Yet, despite these clear gains, deep-seated structural issues continue to limit the sector’s overall productivity and economic impact.
The biggest challenge is competition from traders selling counterfeit, substandard imports at absurdly low costs.
These flashier, cheaper alternatives deceive unsuspecting homeowners, who soon find themselves dealing with issues such as rust and leaks.
Compounding this is the global geopolitical climate; conflicts such as the war in Iran have sent shipping costs skyrocketing, an expense that eventually hits the consumers.
To protect the ‘Made-in-Kenya’ brand and the safety of our homes, regulatory bodies such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards must move beyond policy and into aggressive enforcement, rooting out corruption that allows substandard materials to bypass inspections.
Second, we need to look beyond just rolling the steel locally and start processing the raw materials locally as well, since these resources are available in large quantities in our country.
While a few companies are engaged in local production of raw materials, the high cost of these products suggests we need more players to break existing monopolies.
Finally, we need to champion the use of homegrown building materials in our public and private developments. Buying locally is a patriotic act that drives real economic progress.
This would likely reduce the final price of raw materials for producers, who can then be able to pass on the cost benefit to the consumer, thus making housing more affordable.
Third, we need to provide more tax incentives for local manufactures, so as to reduce their operating costs and make them more competitive against imported products. These incentives could take the form of reducing the cost of fuel products such as diesel, used widely in our factories.
Not only does it sustain thousands of jobs, but it also strengthens our tax base and uplifts the livelihoods of our own people.