In Dubai cities are built in the desert and people migrate there!
Id daent have to have some natural resources underlying.

@impunity. Dubai was built using revenue from oil and Gas discovered in the early 60s.

Dubai's oil production is estimated to be about 240,000 barrels per day.

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/...he_United_Arab_Emirates

http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/dubai/


Konza neither has oil nor gas to fuel its economy.

@ahoo. If Govt can find another source of money apart from tax payer money and Worldbank loans paid back by taxpayers, we would have no problem .

Clarify on what you mean by Govt providing infrastructure.

Do you mean built up space for office/residence?

If its this, we already have infrastructure throughout the country for all classes, from Runda,Muthaiga to Kayole.
There is no relationship between provision of infrastructure in Konza and any sort of productivity wherer in IT or any industry.

A talented programmer will work as well from Muthaiga or from a 1 roomed shack in Mathare slums.
IBM,Microsoft etc have serious analysts who see through any sugar coated ideas so i doubt they would buy into such.

As we speak, over 80% of entities showing interest in Konza are Kenyan owned.

Artificialy created cities usually have unusually high cost of living since the human capital needed to enable reduction of costs is still not well formed eg Dubai.
No investor wants to set up in an expensive city. This means his cost of production will be higher , hence being less competitive.

Ever wondered why every rich neighbourhood has a slum nearby?

Now do an analysis of Bangalore India - Electronic City

@jamplu. Govt does not need to buy the land so as to effect the zoning controls. All it needs to do is create the by laws and enforce them. Unless someone in Govt would like to take advantage and eat, there is no need to buy the land.

For example, Govt can declare whre you currently live in Kenya to be zoned only for 10 floor highrise buildings, with parking for 100 cars, with ground coverage of 80% etc etc and this will become law whether you like it or not.


@murch. The taxpayers employed directly in konza are a drop in the ocean compared to money derived from all Kenyan taxpayers.If Konza gets say 10B from tax payers and pays a few guys 50m, there is a net loss of 9.5B to the economy.

Give examples of the tech smart city infrastructure then we compare. If possible, give video and picture comparison.

If you are one of the analysts for these blue chip IT firms, how comes you have not been able to convince them so as to tilt the over 80% local Konza investors?

Do you mean that firstly, the hass consults of this world will have to invest in Konza then the IBMs of this world later come to rent? How will the hass consults be assured that the real estate is suitable/appropriate for the IBMs?

Currently, Upper Hill and other leafy CBD suburbs have a lower cost of living eg taxi, food, photocopy etc coz of proximity to a over 100 yeas old city centre.

Its cheaper to do business from upper hill than from Konza.

New york city has brooklyn/harlem low income areas. London city has West London slums/Ealing area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbB0cQLY5Ao
http://www.theatlanticci...s-their-backyards/3867/

Land price is kes 200m per acre in Bangalore Electronic city.

http://pricetrends.makaa...pf=1&pt=3&tm=12

Compare this to Konza at 2 to 4m per acre.

This means that major ICT players are not inhibited by high land price so they can also afford Upper Hill with 200 to 300 m per acre prices.

@jus blazin. True. Lets use our intellect and intelligence to analyze these projects. This way, people who have used their intellect and found Konza viable can put in their money while the ones who dont see viability can save their money for other uses.

Using our tax payer money wholesomely in to a project we have analysed as a white elephant is unfair.

Rockefeller,Carnegie et al had solid development master plans based on viability.

Konza city has none. I would give it benefit of doubt if they at least mentioned some industry, say extraction of silicon from sand or doping the silicon or just anything.

But as for now, all am seeing is using tax apyer money to buy 500o acres,
using tax payer money to build buildings and roads,
Using world bank loans payabale by tax payers to buld more infrastructure etc

I need to hear of what will attract any one to the city. This attraction should be something that the current towns of Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Thika and Naivasha can not be able to offer.

Also, dont compare Konza city with Thika road. Even if Thika road is designed to have 50 lanes, it still falls within the confines of a viable project internationally.

Thika road and any other road in Kenya is a viable way of investing tax payer money. Ther eis a direct corelation between road infrastructure and development.

There is no direct co relation between building a city/building/office in the middle of nowhere and ICT development or any development for that matter.

Please show me how Konza city investment will be of any use to the country.

Its obvious on how a road, port, airport, pipeline etc improves development but not a building in the middle of nowhere.

All the vision 20 30 projects make sense except Konza city.

Am yet to find any argument that is fool proof regarding Konza viability. Why should Govt use tax ayer resources to invest in the middle of nowhere while places where there is already an existing livelihood need such infrastructure badly?

Machakos has all the ingredients needed for Konza city. Its roughly same distance from Nairobi cbd, 60km.

Its a better and more viable location for ICT City than Konza.

@ jus blazing. Konza city and many more new cities will emerge in Kenya at their time.

Take an example of Bangalore. The city is 400 years old. Take another example of Silicon vallye. Again it has over 200 years of History.

Konza as we speak has 0 years. There is nothing. A better bet would be either Nairobi or Machakos or Kajiado.
Lets learn from history and avoid wasting scarce resources on projects that can easily be analysed . Whats wrong with pumping the billions that Govt has to Machakos or Kajiado? Why Konza?
At least Machakos and Kjiado have some factors that are ingredients for growth of cities.
Cities dont just form. There are ingredients that come together to create the enabling environment. For Konza, a few people sat and just decided without checking how cities grow.

On the issue of the men who built America,Carnegie,Morgan,Rockefeller etc, am yet to see any such report that most Americans didnt think any of their projects will turn out to be un viable.

Their ideas then had a sense of viability. Its laughable to compare these Americans ideas to Konza. To me Konza can only be compared to Monkey see Monkey do situations, not intelectual projects conceived by Carnegie,Rockefeller et al.

In this case, someone sees Bangalore, Silicon valley then rushes home to look for thenearest bush to copy paste. They forget to look deeper into the whole concept, history,city growing ingredients, etc

Silicon valley is centered on Stanford reserch plus the real Silicon as in chemical symbol Si, which Hewlett and Packard spent years and years doping it to come up with the microchip that is the basis/heart of computers as we speak.

@selah, Kajiado ,Naivasha and Machakos have the same city forming ingredients as Konza.
Why Konza and not Kajiado, Machakos, Naivasha?
For these older towns, its proof that there are some city forming ingredients already in place.

Greenfield estate is 11km from Nairobi CBD.

https://maps.google.com/...sp=0&sz=14&z=13


The reason it was successful is the proximity to CBD.If you go to a new city, say kigali or juba then get land 11km from cbd, its still abit green. This doesnt mean its unfeasible. Soon, development will encroach.
This is idfferent from Konza. Nairobi will naturally grow to join Naivasha, Thika, Kajiado and Machakos.

I recently designed a building in Kigali, 6km from kigali cbd. The area is not heavily populated and feels like Limuru in terms of development.

If anyone invests there and waits for 5 years, it will definitely grow .

Konza will also grow at some point but not within the next 10 years.
I have seen Mlolongo, athi river , machakos junction and chumvi towns grow within the last 10 years. What would make development take a leap from these small towns to jump into Konza?
Development is gradual.
Eg from Nairobi CBD to Buruburu to Doholm then finally to Greenfields.

If it jumped from Nairobi, to Buru buru then to Greenfields, overshooting Donholm, this means there is something not right eg Konza over jumping Mlolong, Athi river, Machakos junction and Chumvi.

Do these Konza techno city guys have an exit plan just in case the project flops?Does Kenya still hope to re-invent the wheel by manufacturibng cars locallly as in the Nyayo Pioneer Car..?