The konza idea is just brilliant if you ask me with more and more multinationals making Nairobi their hub for Africa then we need to up our game as far as telecommunication and IT infrastructure is concerned !

It was important that the government had a large piece of land dedicated to creation of a sensible well planned technology city. Speculation on land prices (and extraordinarily small landholdings)is the bane of many third world countries that are trying to attract FDI.

No company really convenes its board to discuss about land acquisition when considering FDI UNLESS land is a major factor of production in the company's line of business e.g those in the mining industry or agricultural produce business.

Discussing land matters with regard to technology companies, I think you have the wrong agenda item on the table.

Do you recall Bob Collimore mentioning that "they are not in the real estate business". A comment he made when it was alleged that Safaricom House was on a road reserve. Whether the house was to be demolished or not, that was not a long term threat to the business, as long as there is proper planning and notice when they should move.

@ Alma, eboomerang.. @ Judge Hall or? Short answer will suffice? ahsante?

http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html

About Paul Graham,PhD,Comp Science,Harvard

http://www.paulgraham.com/bio.html
Not Buildings

If you go to see Silicon Valley, what you'll see are buildings. But it's the people that make it Silicon Valley, not the buildings. I read occasionally about attempts to set up "technology parks" in other places, as if the active ingredient of Silicon Valley were the office space. An article about Sophia Antipolis bragged that companies there included Cisco, Compaq, IBM, NCR, and Nortel. Don't the French realize these aren't startups?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Antipolis

Building office buildings for technology companies won't get you a silicon valley, because the key stage in the life of a startup happens before they want that kind of space. The key stage is when they're three guys operating out of an apartment. Wherever the startup is when it gets funded, it will stay. The defining quality of Silicon Valley is not that Intel or Apple or Google have offices there, but that they were started there.

So if you want to reproduce Silicon Valley, what you need to reproduce is those two or three founders sitting around a kitchen table deciding to start a company. And to reproduce that you need those people.

@murchr..the issue is why the Govt is using tax payers money close to KES 800m to acquire the 5000 acre land. This money should go into providing basic utilities such as fibre optic cable,electricity e.t.c
The project can still be realized without Govt buying the land-all govt needs to do is zone the area as a city.

In the Indian Silicon valley, they bought only 335 acres of land
http://en.wikipedia.org/...Silicon_Valley_of_India
'History

The Electronics City was the brainchild of R K Baliga. He was the first Chairman and Managing Director of Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (in 1976 the government agency was created to expand the electronics industry in the state of Karnataka). Baliga proposed the concept of developing the electronic city in the 1970s. The agency purchased 335 acres (1.36 km2) of land 18 km south of Bangalore for its Electronics City project, which was meant to establish an industrial park in Bangalore. '

@ jamplu..all Govt needs to do is to utilise the close to KES 1B [KES 200K per acre x 5000acres]it will use to acquire the Konza land to improve ICT infrastructure and/or support ICT Based university.
Kenya already has the talent within it. All the talent needs is support in terms of ICT Infrastructure.

When the last mile is fully functional then i don't think we will have major issues with internet which i think the majority are calling the infrastructure it will be up to safaricom and the rest of the partners to ensure that the bandwidth is available to all as required.
Regarding ICT infrastructure in universities what kind of infrastructure are we talking about because i don't think you need more than a computer/ a laptop and your own initiative to come up with something or learn the skills. In my college days we bought ourselves clones with our HELB money established networks in our Hostels we didn't need optical fiber for that we taught ourselves the IT skills on networking and software development yes we didn't invent facebook or twitter but whatever we learned then has enabled us get where we are, help others and also contribute to the society.

Taking EPZ as an example why is it struggling to compete internationally...If AGOA was to be scrapped today will the EPZ stay afloat.

When we say Konza will be a technology city obviously it will not only be a BPO and software hub but also a manufacturing hub are we able to host IBM,NOKIA,GE and other major technological companies with our derelict transport infrastructure.

KPA currently is unable to cope with the existing demand, Lamu Port and its connecting infrastructure might take several years to complete...RVR, well, I dont know when they are going to break ground on a new railway line.The expansion of JKIA has been put on hold due to lack of Funds.

When you look at the challenges ahead Konza city is a brilliant Idea but in Realistic terms will it rival the Asian tigers.

I read somewhere that Ihub has more than 3,000 developers who frequent the facility,we have several startups which are making a name for themselves globally i.e craft silicon,seven seas and other startups that are yet to go mainstream.

Why cant the Govt zone Konza and give incentives like tax breaks for any company that set up operation in that zone then let it grow from there.

The Hype the govt is giving this project will only make it uncompetitive due to speculators who will push the property prices in the area unrealistically high....making it another Nairobi.

@a4architect.com The land has already been bought by the govt from malili, a group of ranchers who previously owned the land. All that land near athi-river all the way to salama was previously owned by some sort of saccos. Note its important that the govt controls and plans the city otherwise we will have flats in the middle of the city. The govt has already participated in bringing in the fiber cable to the country. Note that at Konza there shall be universities that will supply the human resource needed. UON and Strathmore is among them.