How would the gov't zone the land to its desired layout if it doesn't have control over it? Its private ranch and i think there would be legal battles which could be more expensive, time wise, than the cash used to buy the land. Why work with ceramic when can have china clay and mold the desired ceramic? WHY?

If I was In charge of the Konza city implementation committee This is what I would have done.

Encourage by offerig incentives to UoN,strathmore,Egerton and JKUAT to set up technological campuses in Konza this will attract private developers(housing) and other businesses(cafeterias,shops,malls) to cater for the students ,lecturers and visitors.

Once these campuses are established with basic amenities in place its easy for big Businesses to set up base.The easily available cheap labour and housing will make the place conducive for business.

Another way of doing it is attracting big player like safaricom & Airtel's spanco to set up their BPOs in Konza,we have also very successful biotech companies like universal & GlaxoSmithKline that employ thousands of employees, these companies can boost Konza rapid growth.

Kenyans have the capacity to make Konza a reality all that is needed is collaboration and the right incentives.All we are seeing is how Konza is going to be with little to show on how its going to get there.

Take Isiolo for instance the confusion on the ground has fueled animosity among communities.The blueprint is not public, so speculators are taking advantage and fuelling a land scrabble that is turning to be a nightmare for the locals.

The same thing seems to be happening in Konza just last week the Government had to issue a 10km warning to developers how many kenyans will loose cash from speculators who are probably selling Konza with allotment letters.

You are talking of Nairobi, a CITY. Konza is some ranch, open land. No roads, no sewer, no public utilities land. Nairobi has roads, you can say from road A to road B, all that land is residential,etc,etc. In a ranch, how do you do that? Compulsory acquisition and outright buying, which is better coz at the end of it all, a price is paid. How as a gov't, do you zone Konza? A private land. DON'T mention Nairobi,i know.

@ Selah..good points. The best way to kickstart Konza city is by attracting universities for the human capital. The area is best situated for expansion of Nairobi City coz of proximity to Mombasa road/railway/airport/cheap vacant land.
Another way is to use most resources to lay city infrastructure e.g elec,roads, fibre optic e.t.c.
Kenyan ICT talent is abundant, judging from the numerous ICT startups especially in the money transfer field.
My only issue with the ICT Board was on why they had to spend 1 B on land instead on infrastructure.But after seeing the budget that they have,120 million USD, i understand that money is not a limitation in executing this project.
See a similar heated debate here where Dr. Bitange Ndemo himself has replied to comments
http://www.kictanet.or.ke/?p=6295

http://www.google.co.ke/...bjs7l57LufGsnjvCecwOrGFw

This discussion has changed.

@a4archtect, are you now OK with Konza so long as GoK doesn't buy the land?

If yes, what do you think will be the incentive for firms to move there? Who will provide services(roads, sewer, street lighting etc)? Is it the Machakos County Govt?

Please remember that under the new law, county govts which are more autonomous than the local authorities we knew, will be in charge of provision of planning and provision of basic infrastructure in their areas.

I doubt the central govt would want to entrust such a project to a county govt which will have a lot of other commitments. Also, they are unlikely to have the expertise needed for such a project!