3 minute read
Figure 3-3 – Focus Area 1: Wote CBD
Figure 3-3 – Focus Area 1: Wote CBD
Source: Atkins, 2022 Anchor Project 1 – Wote Clothes & Timber Market Upgrade - The Jua-kali market sheds, adjacent to the Makueni County Referral Hospital, currently suffer from a lack of visibility from the street, poor accessibility to the site, and a conflict of incompatible uses on the site. There is a need to consider redevelopment of the site with appropriate uses, maximising the available space for trade and commerce, increasing permeability through the site, and providing greater visibility for businesses along the frontage. There is also the potential to provide additional transport connectivity to the site with the provision of a bus stop. Conscious of operational and funding challenges, two options have been developed to give the Municipality a range of choices, including a radical re-development of the site or a partial repurposing of some of the existing structures (adaptive re-use) in an attempt to produce a cost-effective yet improved new destination. Refer to Section 4.4.3.1 for further details on these options.
Anchor Project 2 – Kaiti River Linear Park - River Kaiti is central to the development of Wote Town but is currently plagued by the town's inefficient solid waste management system and illegal sand mining activities for construction, which results in soil erosion during flash floods and subsequently low vegetation coverage. Despite this, the southern riverbank is already a leisure and recreation site, especially utilised and enjoyed by the younger population. The ‘Linear Park’ concept takes a blue-green infrastructure approach and focuses on addressing these challenges through multiple conservational/ protective and urban interventions along the river's stretch.
Anchor Project 3 – Wote Bus Park Relocation & Rationalisation – The bus park along the Wote - Makindu Road B107 (previously C99) is located centrally within the CBD and creates traffic and congestion. The site is currently too small to accommodate larger buses and a number of alternative sites have been identified, including those proposed by the Municipality, to relocate the bus park in order to service County and regional bus services. These are considered alongside potentially repurposing the existing site in order to rationalise the flow of traffic through the CBD and provide more functionality.
3.4.2 Focus Area 2: Agriprocessing at Kalamba
Agri-processing is an emerging sector across the Municipality with considerable potential for value addition in multiple sub-sectors (e.g., fruit, poultry, and honey). However, the existing scale of production, technology adoption, access to finance and technical support are all constraints. Makueni County is a significant producer of fruits that are suitable for juice extraction and bottling, in particular mango, citrus, and other fruit including papaya, pomegranate, guava and passion fruit. However, most of the County’s fruit output is sold at fresh produce markets or sent for processing elsewhere, with little local value addition.
There is an established medium-sized County operated processing plant for mango juice and pulps located at Kalamba, known as the Makueni Fruit Processing Plant. The existing plant has potential to be developed as a value chain opportunity, by incorporating a wider range of products and addressing the existing post-production marketing and sales issues. Development in this Focus Area would be targeted on the existing site of the fruit processing facility and support the expansion of the facility, in particular introducing citrus juice processing and water bottling. There is substantial potential to extend the processing season through targeting other fruit for juicing. A number of factors support Kalamba as a suitable location for enhanced and potentially new industrial activity. The site is located near the mid-point of the B107/C99, between Wote and the northern economic corridor which enables good access to the transport and logistics hub at Emali. The existing juice processing factory also provides the impetus, with basic infrastructure and access to an existing pool of labour. This VC would be complemented by the proposed Aggregation Centre in Kwa Kathoka, supporting its agri-processing potential with additional agricultural products.
The agri-processing facility will need to ensure pollution and damage to the natural environment is minimised. It is proposed to undertake modular development of the site and develop guidelines on infrastructure requirements to ensure the site is developed in a sustainable manner which allows for expansion of activity, while safeguarding the environment including the provision of on-site water treatment, waste management and disposal, solar power to support ongoing operations, transportation corridors (links) and security measures.
