Digital imaging company Canon Middle East has established a subsidiary company in Kenya, in a bid to strengthen its presence in East Africa.

Under the directives of the Canon Middle East office in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Canon Kenya Limited is planned to focus on providing marketing and channel development services to both new and existing partners and clients across Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea, Rwanda and Burundi.

The move comes after Canon’s decision in 2011 to shift the company's operations in East Africa to Canon Middle East. Previously, Canon’s East Africa operations were handled by the digital imaging company’s South Africa office.

Subsequently, the Kenyan subsidiary is planned to include two channel account managers who will oversee the provision of on the ground support to tier two distributors across specific markets in East Africa.

Canon, in a statement released last week, says this is in addition to a dedicated area manager, based out of the Canon Middle East office in Dubai, who will be responsible for all tier one operations across the East African markets.

"The establishment of Canon Kenya Limited will broaden our ability to invest in the African markets,” said Anurag Agrawal, managing director, Canon Middle East.