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.