Dustbowl rising
Hip hip - hooray!
God bless devolution
Hip hip - hooray!
God bless Gov Lenku and his team
Hip hip - hooray!

Ever forward never backward!

@tinker
I said it some time back. It will take very little in terms of a few changes implemented to get Ngong giving Kitengela a serious run for its money. Ngong is more scenic (with its rolling hills), less congested, better planned but that clutter of roadside hawkers, poor drainage and roads in the CBD were what were holding it back. The day you will know Ngong has arrived is the day we will see a Java and a Stanchart full scale branch hapo
They only open branches where urbane middle class has reached critical mass and Ngong is just a sneeze away from reaching there. I have to hand it over to whoever is in charge of the town. The changes I have seen just in the past 12 months alone including the roads around the bus park have been commendable.

Asante sana for this lovely info my braddah! Hip hip hooray to Ngong being elevated to municipality juzi:
https://countypress.co.k...ated-to-municipalities/

We now want to see the KURA bulldozers, graders and tarmacking machineries invading roads in and around Ngong like swarms of flies in an unkempt butchery.

I took some pics of the "New Ngong" right after the hawkers were all cleared jana. County trucks were still removing the remnant kiosks and furious activity (excavators, fencing, bulldozers etc) were at work at the new market site. Once the rubbish is removed and greeneries are planted Ngong CBD will be super beautiful. But we need more modern buildings there jameni and proper link/feeder roads withing the CBD (hata kama ni cabro). Some of these buildings look very run down and dated and cannot attract quality commercial tenants that will add to Ngong's coming boom.





There is no reason why Ngong CBD cannot look like any other world class small town CBD (below)and become a model town for others in Kenya! Na haihitaji pesa mingi. Over to you bwanas David, Manje and Lenku!

Report from 3 months ago.."The market will be the largest in East and Central Africa.". Remember that this means it will be larger than anything seen anywhere in mighty Nairobi, Champarra, Dar-Es-Salaam and Kinshasa! And all this where else but in Dustbowl County Rising

Rule numero uno de la real estate: Build it and they will come

Look at the area of land occupied by those houses. With the mentality of 50*80/40*60/50*100 in Kenya including DC you will NEVER achieve that. Note the homes are not same/similar in design but well structured with high standards. Kenyans like cutting costs/corners

Of course it is papa. Who says DC does not have high end neighbourhoods or high end neighbourhood potential? Of course for the AngelicaAnns of the world everything is impossible beyond village tenders and enjoying airtight mediocrity for the next 100 years

Agree with the view that Kajiado will def expand if for nothing else, as a result of the natural growth of Nairobi.

The growth does need to be managed and not just allowed to happen organically as it has if DC is to live up to its full potential.

Some things that need to be addressed in my opinion are:

1. Water - there is a perennial crisis over dry taps for most residents. This despite the fact that Athi river is delivering millions of gallons of water to the Indian Ocean - and sometimes flooding peoples residences in the process - each year.

2. Industries: Despite a proliferation of Universities in DC owing to cheap (er) land, there are very few industries of note that have set up shop in DC as far as I can remember. Well there is EPZ and Kenchick etc - but these were pre existing and not very large. Other than the cement companies in Athir River cant think of any large scale industrial complexes that are being set up in the region. It may very well be a symptom of the incompetence of national government in attracting new industries to the country that spill over to the counties. But truth is for the DC to grow, as with all other counties, it needs to attract and incentivise industries to create employment within the county.

3. Infrastructure especially roads: DC has been the rational choice for Kenyans looking to move into home ownership owing to affordability of land and subsequently cheaper costs of home ownership. Sadly for those who end up buying or building homes in DC the realities of the daily commute push them back to Nairobery. Hopefully the train terminals resolve this issue but still feel there is no substitution for an efficient road network. Rail is very rigid in its routing and for that reason I remain unconvinced it alone will solve the issue. Unless we develop a comprehensive rail system similar to NY subway or London underground, a railway with a single destination though an improvement will not fully resolve the issue. Kitengela town as an example already needs a road expansion. Traffic there can be a biatch.


4. Speculators - I being one of them, need to be heavily punished for any parcels that they hold not put to productive use. Speculation pushes land prices up and in some areas leads to the inability to create sufficiently dense communities to allow for proliferation of support and essential services. There just is no critical mass for even the county government to justify spending money to bring roads, water, elec to some places because firstly - some people are holding land, unwilling to develop or sell at current prices, and secondly those willing to develop the land cannot afford the land prices and are forced to buy further inland where they can afford it. Only thing is this may be too far for them - far outweighing the joys of home ownership. Sort of a self reinforcing loop.

5. Master planning - essential to avoid creating a massive shanty town.

The service lanes tarmac in Kitengela are a positive. Movement of the matatu terminal further up, also assists in traffic flow somewhat. Now the main trunk road to Kitengela International Academy needs to be done and prices will be solid

Definitely a positive for the area.I just saw plans for a megacity in Athi River

https://www.businessdail...6836-vnae2mz/index.html