Some 30km south east of Nairobi is China Wu Yi (Kenya) Precast Co Ltd where a large factory for new building technologies has been constructed and this has created stirs in the construction fraternity.
The company in the year 2016, started the construction of a Kenya Building Industrialization Research Development and Production Base along side the building materials supermarket project, famously known as the ‘Wu Yi Base’ located at the industrial area of Athi River.
Construction of the Wu Yi Base was done right on the border of gorgeous and seemingly endless plains and cultivated farmland. Over the course of the past few years, this factory has been producing precast items such as concrete slabs for roof and floor, steel for columns and beams’ fabrication into modern homes.
Within the compound that comprises the production floor for the Structural lintels and Staircase handrails as well as company’s personal-compliance supermarket of construction materials and staff residential buildings; local young people like Brian Calisto kariuki has been empowered with employment opportunities and exposure as to how the technology in precast building works.
The 30-year-old is a geospatial engineering major who has worked at China Wu Yi since 2017 and started at the precast building materials factory He has been promoted to the position of an assistant manager at the company.
Speaking to Xinhua in a recent interview, Kariuki said given the fact that precast technology is available, all a developer has to do is to join columns and slabs where the house is to be developed; it takes less time, is of good quality.
Kariuki had much to say about precast explaining that four floor can be constructed in a month if precast is used stressing on the fact that it saves time and cost since quality concrete can be achieved. Another one is it can act as an all-weather type, meaning that even if it is raining or sunny, one can always engage into precast.
Up to now, buildings that has been erected by using precast technology are belongs to China Wu Yi such as the Central Bank Kenya pension towers and the Rose Avenue shopping center building at Nairobi, according to Kariuki.
He said that he has been mentored by his Chinese supervisor hence enhancing his technical and managerial competencies and that precast technology has brought a dramatically change into the construction industry.
To meet increasing demands the design, manufacture, display, and sale of assembled precast components are facilitated as is the case at China Wu Yi Base.
Currently, at the mall, China Wu Yi has brought about more than twenty brands of Chinese construction materials and home accessories like tiles, ‘wash ‘n wear, hardware, lanterns and home decorations among others into the Kenyan market.
