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Mucai Kunyiha

CHAIR OF BOARD: KENYA ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS

Mucai Kunyiha is the Chairman of Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), a representative of manufacturing and value-add industries in Kenya established in 1959.

KAM is a dynamic, vibrant, credible and respected business membership association that represents members from Kenya’s manufacturing industry.

Kunyiha has over 20 years’ experience in business at executive management level in the manufacturing and distribution of agricultural inputs and the real estate industry and has what it takes to realize KAM’s mission to promote competitive and sustainable local manufacturing.

Prior to this role, he was the Vice-Chair of the Association. He has also served on the KAM Board, specifically in the Legal and Regulatory Committee, HR and Governance Committee, Finance Management and Projects Committee.

For many years, Kunyiha has been on the driver’s seat in championing KAM’s sustainability agenda. He has been providing strategic direction to the association’s initiatives, ensuring they are aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 10 UN Global Compact principles on Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

He provided strategic leadership to the KAM PET sub-Sector’s endeavour to partner with the government and other stakeholders to manage plastic bottle waste during his role as the sub-Sector Chair and has played a key role in the development of the Kenya Plastic Action Plan (KPAP), a private sector-led policy and action plan aimed at enabling a circular economy for environmentally sustainable use and recycling of plastics in Kenya, launched its launch in 2019, earning him tremendous respect and recognition as a clean environmental ambassador  and advocate.

He was equally instrumental in the development of the Strategic Business Plan for the establishment of a Plastic Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) in Kenya and will drive collective Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the country. In EPR, a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle, whilst turning plastic waste into valuable and re-usable resources.

Kunyiha also champions the drive of industry towards best practices on green growth and climate change initiatives. This includes linking industries with technology providers towards environmentally sound solutions to achieve sustainable manufacturing, through the Centre for Green Growth and Climate Change (CGGCC) launched late last year.

He is keen on promoting and nurturing local manufacturing and value-addition industries. To this end, he has been focusing on advocating for the development of coherent policies that support industrial growth, pushing for predictability in fiscal and legislative regulations and support for MSMEs through policy advocacy.

He acknowledges that the manufacturing sector is an integral part of Kenya’s sustainable growth and development, and its resilience is core in his vision as the KAM chair of board.

Appointed as the KAM Board Chair in July 2020 as the country was reeling from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, he has continued to steer members of the association amid the turbulent times. This includes developing recovery strategies and policies that will see the economy rebound and increase the sector’s contribution to the GDP exponentially. He has been steering the organization through the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen the KAM members also delve in manufacturing PPE for the frontline health workers as well as providing hygiene and food products to help cushion the most vulnerable of the poor to have food on the table in their homes and keep the country moving.

Mucai trained as a lawyer at the University of Wales (Cardiff) later obtaining an MBA from Ashridge College in the UK.

Mucai serves on various company boards as a non-executive director and on the Kenya Vision 2030 Delivery Board. He has been on the board of Kenya Property Developers Association for several years and the Chairman (2016 – 2019).

Mucai Kunyiha is the Group Managing Director at Cooper K-Brands, the firm that recently launched a new factory at the Tatu City, in a strategic expansion of the company capacity and capability to manufacture and improve on its animal food and other nutritional supplements for the Kenya farmers and within the region.

Seated on 5.7 acres of land, the new factory has an automated Buhler (Switzerland) plant fitted into a 36.5m tower. The new factory has capacity to produce 2 tons per hour of product. With a 541 kilowatts power requirement, the new factory is also fitted with a 200-kilowatt Photo Voltaic rooftop system as an alternative for cleaner energy for up to 50 per cent of its daytime requirement.

For decades, local farmers have trusted this firm to provide its leading range of high-quality mineral supplements for effectiveness and increased production on the farms.

The launch of the multimillion state-of-the-art factory is the first phase of the company’s expansion plans. The company plans to relocate its manufacturing plants from its main offices in Loresho, Nairobi to Tatu City in Kiambu County.