Trade and Investment Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui (centre) tours the Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone on July 22, 2026. [Robert Menza, Standard]
More than two decades after it was conceived as Kenya's flagship industrial hub, Mombasa's Dongo Kundu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is showing fresh signs of life as new investors prepare to establish operations.
Yet the slow rollout of critical supporting infrastructure continues to delay large-scale private investment and raises questions over the government's seriousness about the industrial transformation.
The latest investor to commit to the zone is Milly Glass SEZ Ltd, a subsidiary of the Milly Group of Companies, which plans to establish Africa's first pharmaceutical glass bottle manufacturing plant.
The company has acquired 15 acres within the SEZ and intends to construct an 80-tonne glass manufacturing factory dedicated to producing amber pharmaceutical bottles for Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the wider Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
Speaking last week during a tour of the project by Trade and Industry Cabinet Secretary Lee Kinyanjui, Milly Glass SEZ director Mohamed Rashid said the company expects to break ground at the end of this month.
"We hope to be able to start production of amber bottles for pharmaceuticals by July 2027," Rashid said.