Has any Wazuan have any further details on the proposed MALILI TECHNOPOLIS?

According to internet sources, the proposed Malili Technopolis is a Vision2030 project and will be a completely new town in Kenya sitting on 5000 acres to be built from scratch by the government in partnership with private investors located somewhere 60kms outside Nairobi.

According to the concept paper by PS Bitange Ndemo (click on link above), Malili will be Eastern Africa's first and only technopolis – a city built up for technology firms and it’s the Kenyan government’s way of creating a regional ICT brand.

Malili will have facilities to support Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) ventures and a science park, a convention centre, shopping mall, hotels, international schools and health facilities. Malili is located about 60 km southeast of Nairobi. Similar cities already exist in Malaysia (PutraJaya), Panama (Pacifico), the Philippines (Subic-Clark) and China (Shenzhen).

Here are some artistic images:





Already I have seen one or two speculators advertising for land in the local dailies!

The private investors partnering with government are not yet known.

waaoo! if its going to happen, then that will be awesome! But where will the water come from?

Yes interesting. Where will all the water come from or is it the kind we're used to...looks like one can bathe in it (2nd pic). And what about the lighting...talk about crazy reflections (1st pic), can't imagine working with that...and always blue at night? Looks like this place will be the disco capital of Africa and why does this remind me of Avatar, oh yeah becoz "IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN"...LOL..it's magic. though I'd buy the artist's impression now (& not in 2030)...do my part for the vision.

@Njunge

Why is the GoK, specifically the Information Ministry, so secretive about this project?

You will have seen on Bitange's concept paper that the government intends to use the Sameer Export Zone as a 'stepping stone' to Malili Technopolis.

- Why Sameer EPZ and not the GoK's own EPZ/EPA?
- Sameer owned by Naushad Merali a well known power broker from the Moi to Kibaki eras.
- Merali was and still is ex President Moi's frontman in the Kencell/Celtel/Zain deals.
- Along with Mois, Biwott, Kiplagat, Kulei and others, Merali and his Equatorial Commercial Bank were adversely mentioned in the explosive KROLL REPORT. ECB has since co-opted senior and influential Kibaki government insiders into its shareholding and this can be verified by the NSE.

Could Merali & Co (read Moi & Co) be the private investors Betange has single sourced for development of Malili Technopolis hence the secrecy?

Still on the Kroll report, is the mind-boggling US$ 2Billion that was reportedly siphoned from state coffers allegedly by the Moi family being repatriated to be re-invested in the development of Malili?

Or perhaps the shadowy former share holders of Safaricom - Mobitelea - who quitely and mysteriously sold their shareholding to Vodafone last year considering putting their billions of on Malili?

To avoid speculation, the government needs to come out openly on the Malili project. Its needs to open up the project development to competitive bidding. Transparency should not be so difficult unless this is a classified project. Only then will the public know how serious it is in implementing this project.

i guess it will take off one day consider looking at the excerpts from daily nation thursday 22/04/10 money magazine article about "For Thika road residents, life set to become more exciting"
Some comments from Prof Njuguna Ndung’u are somehow encouraging

I think we Kenyans have become so used to government neglect, broken promises and white elephants that our pessimism is somewhat understandable. But I also think that we must not be blind to the achievements that have been made over the years. We live in a freer, more democratic society today that 15 years ago. Our roads are a lot better today than in 2002. Attempts have been made to streamline public transport. True, even I don't agree with the pace or efficiency of these reforms. But by lowering our expectations we encourage our leaders and ourselves to keep up (or worse still lower) the slow tempo of development. If we are to hold our leaders and ourselves accountable, then we must continue to raise the bar. That way we know when we are falling short. We know when our leaders are letting us down. And we can usefully say "Hey, someone is not doing their job!" rather than whine uselessly "Ah, serikali inakuwanga hivyo!". I await you, Malili, with the eagerness of an expectant father.

A pipe dream , a mirage , ghost , monkey city , a dark tunnel. Pesa ilikuliwa.Forget about about it.
Maybe in Thika by the year 3020

sasa lazima cooperative biulding be replicated?

mmmmh. if they are more keen on cooptype, then-----.
By the way they have to do this thing before the counties mania come out forcefully. In the future it will be hard to get through any one-off massive project esp if its something that can, theoretically be located anywhere. We are likely to see evry project being broken down into small county bits with attendant unviability.