@ jamplu.Previous planners around Nairobi before 2002-2005 were not qualified.Thats how chaos in planning came about. Now they are all registered planners with good credentials. I know most of them personally.

This is a discussion aimed to shape our minds and assist policy makers make the best decision on using our tax payer money-no one is right or wrong.

Our tax payer money is involved so we have a right to inquire into its use.

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@jamplu unless you are getting hybrid planners also in Konza, the same guys you are talking about in mavoko will be in Konza. The same people who are supposed to ensure that laws and bylaws are followed now in Nairobi will be the same guys at Konza. Unless of course even that you will import.

Nairobi's problem has never been planning. It has been governance. The very same people now telling you to go to Konza, are the very same governors and managers that have failed in Nairobi. These include Proffesors Ndemo and Kiamba.

The reason why I'm against this whole concept is this notion that new cities change how people work.

When London had a serious problem with drainage, they did not move the city somewhere else, they came up with the engineering marvel that is the sewage system in London.

When Paris had a trash problem, they did not create another city, they fixed the problem the best they could and are still doing the same.

When Kenya has a problem, the technocrats decide to create a whole new cities with the same managers who messed up the first city, In the hope that things will be different.

Think Big doesn't mean sweep problems under the carpet.

As long as there is no ICT component in Konza, it will be competing against Tatu. Now I want to wager which of the two will be a better city.

Am happy to see Wazuans having a go at Konza. I struggle to appreciate the whole concept other than it is Nyandemo's (et al) scheme to hype an idea for them to cash in speculation on land prices.

Is funding the problem or the projects viability? Why can't Kenyans do things in their own way, do we have to copy and paste what others are doing? Shouldn't National Oil be thinking of transforming itself to Saudis Aramco? By the way, have you seen the automation in Aramco. Do some research and you will notice we have a long way to go. It is my believe that Americans succeed because they seek to do things differently and in their own way...notice they even changed the queens language.

1. Is creating an ICT park wrong?

2. We all complain that doing business in the city is unbearable the man hrs lost in traffic are just too much, one way of solving the issue is decongesting, now if govt proposes some zoned area on the opposite direction of the city, what is so wrong with that?

3. Well well...If we lack talent and 18 local and international universities want to set up talent incubators what is so wrong with the govt facilitating that? Again, do you believe the likes of seven seas craft silicon and cellulant would be attracting business across Africa without the talent?

May be if we try to answer the above questions we will move on with a sober debate.

@alma..vey true.
It boils down to feasibility.

Lamu port is feasible coz of Turkana,S.Sudan oil.

Isiolo town is feasible coz of oil prospects.

These can attract funding form other sources apart from treasury.

Konza project as a residential town is feasible and can attract funding from private sector.

Konza project as high rise city is not feasible, thereby requiring need to fund directly from treasury.

1. Is creating an ICT park wrong?

That is a great idea past its time. We have to. What we are having here is a debate on the quickest way there.

My view is that 300k spent on buying a plot would be better spent on educating or funding another iHub in Kisumu. Invest in the mind first, they will build their own houses.

2. one way of solving the issue is decongesting,

Those who've ever been to ADD know that Nairobi is one of the best planned cities in Africa. The issue is not the planning, the issue with nairobi has always been implementation.

Look at all the unplanned, unregulated buildings and roads in this city. It is the fault of those who are charged with the duty to ensure that bylaws, planning laws and others are followed.

Are they doing their work?

I say again, unless you solve the problem in Nairobi, it will be transported to Konza.

3. seven seas craft silicon and cellulant would be attracting business across Africa without the talent?

First the three you have mentioned were not started in Konza so just showing you don't need Konza to do IT.

Second, these 3 cannot fill up Times Tower, let alone 5000 acres.

Lastly, the idea of attracting BPO companies is strongly against an idea of developing ICT talent. Look at the ones in Kenya right now...They hire call centre workers and typists.


We have a gov't signalling that we wish to be cheap labour. That is very very dangerous. We wish to have a Kenyan with the next Facebook, not a town of call girls.

I'm strongly of the opinion that gov't funds would have been better used in growing strong IT talent.

Education, laws and financing to entreprenuers in this sector will go a long long way.

I want you to quote me on this in a few years.

After Konza is finished, the ict companies that are Kenyan owned will have their companies somewhere in Tatu city, Ngong Road, Juja Road rather than Konza. Please quote me anywhere and everywhere you wish.

I challenge the ICT Board again not to go to another seminar abroad spending public funds but to fund someone like Idd Salim or the Akira Chix. They will build Konza on their own.

As you mull all that, did you know that in Cambridge the IT companies there are mostly housed in wooden buildings?

You don't hear the Gov. of Massachusetts insisting that the state build modern high rises. The state instead invests in the fire department to make sure those wooden houses don't burn to the ground.

Once they make some money, the IT companies build their own houses not the Governor.

Solve the problem. That is thinking BIG.

@jamplu I believed my father was a large scale maize farmer with his 100 acres until I saw a small scale farmer in the US with 10,000 acres. I said small scale.

Same case with ICT. We have to scale up to be considered an IT hub. Not 300 people at iHub. They can't fill a floor at facebook hq.

You can't scale up with buildings, they have finite space. You can scale up with the mind, it is infinite. Lets invest in the minds of Kenyans. All of them not those blessed enough to pay a monthly fee at iHub.

Let's get serious here.

@alma there is saying where i come from that you don't climb a tree from the top you start from the bottom. ihub and the rest of the incubation centers is our starting point. what if each of the 300 leaving ihub each started a start-up and assume 150 of them failed we have 150 start-ups what if each employed 10 that == a growing ICT sector and your Konza city will be filled up in 10 years
Lets look at your facebook example how many people started it or even Apple and the rest with large campuses these started in dorm rooms and garages.

Most of the IT companies are no longer waiting for graduates with 100% capacity they have stepped up by training new entrant so stop thinking nothing is happening in terms of building capacity.