What we should focus on is whether Konza city will create opportunity for Kenyans in the technology,Hospitality, health, education and finance sectors konza is not only meant for the IT industry.Likewise we should be giving ideas on how we can create opportunities for those willing to make good use of these opportunities. There is talent in Kenya there are young guyz doing amazing IT innovations from mobile Apps to great solutions extending some of the major ERP solutions.

Our AG indeed belongs to the old school of thought..!!!

Im tempted to call him names

@selah..good point. Govt should concentrate on policy and live business to its citizens. The 400m pumped into Konza to buy land could have been used to support innovation. The 600 men who own Konza understand business logic so they would still support ICT city at Konza without govt buying their land-they could have been left to re-sell their land to ICT businesses. I dont see the point of using tax payers money to buy land then resell the same land.
I also dont see the point of using tax payers money to advertise empty land with marvelous 3 d renderings while they could have asked the owners of konza land to join together to advertise their own land at their own cost to potential buyers.

I think Konza will be the first city to be fully planned before inception in Africa(I stand to be corrected). The places you have mentioned as having failed planning have mushroomed without plans but that will not be the case with Konza.

Today, we are being given the chance to own part of and the environs of the city the same way some Muranga men did when Nairobi was coming up when no one would guess that those buildings would be worth tens or hundreds of millions.

For all risk takers, i would advise you to invest around Konza with the future in mind. Vision 2030 is only 17yrs ago. Thats when most of the young people's children will be joining colleges and universities. Half a million in 2030 will not educate your child at the Uni or in Private schools but if invested in Konza and Konza takes off(some of us have no doubt it will), you will have an investment worth millions which you can choose to sell off and educate your children or you will have been developed and rent collected would pay the fee....
Long term thinking.

Anyone feeling what I mean?

Nothing could be further from the truth. I would single out the Ministry of Infocomm - say that about other ministries but NOT InfoComms.

I meant to say, that we only have 17yrs to go before the year of Vision 2030

@Wendz No one is saying Konza city is a bad investment all we are saying as real estate that place can sell itself the govt shld just provide guidelines and policy.

A question was asked why would IBM,Microsoft or Nokia invest in Konza and not Nairobi or Mombasa.What makes Konza attractive to tecnological companies...Is it the Blue print alone.

Our argument is that Human capital is necessary thats why silicon valley and Indias It hubs came into being.

About The potential of Konza becoming a city Brasilia, Abuja, Guangzhou and Bangalore are some of the cities that have become successful after a deliberate plan by their government to create new specialised cities...so konza will work but as a longterm plan.

Was reading somewhere about some of the reasons for the success of the silicon valley.

Wasn't because it was in San Francisco. More because it was close to Stanford University.

I would like you all to visit the University of Nairobi ADD campus and see the plan that was there for Nairobi. You would never recognise Nairobi from the plans. All the way from footpaths, to bicycle lanes to leeways....Nairobi is awesome on paper.

Thika road was not mooted by Michuki. It is in numerous papers at that campus. Take a few moments of your life and head there.

All these plans fail simply because of implementation.If you take Kisia to Konza, no amount of 3D will work.

There is a plan now for an ICT city in Kenya in about 10-20 yrs. What is being done now to implement it other than selling plots? The kids now in standard 6 will be graduating from college at about that time. Other than changing the number of years that one goes through school, are they being prepared to take up the jobs in such a park or shall we import from India?

There is no doubt in my mind that Konza as a property investment right now is a better idea than buying an apartment in Kilimani. The problem I have and others who work in this industry is that we don't believe that building houses alone will make Kenya an ICT Mecca.

All you have to do is visit ICT centres in the world and understand how far we are and the challenges we face. If that is negative thinking, then so be it. I prefer to call it a calling spade a spade thinking.

With the opening up of Thika road, chances are higher that an ICT mecca will show up somewhere around Juja and Thika simply because you will have the trained labour in JKuat and KU. This is how Silicon Valley happened. All those colleges around there. They did not build a tall building first. It was the people first.

And every day when Kenyans do not have access to great ICT infrastructure, is another day when Philipinos and Indians are getting faster and better IT connectivity. Every day that the ICT board sells plots instead of making sure ICT is available even to the men beaten up in Nyeri, is another day when this Konza thing becomes a mirage rather than reality.

poundfoolish, I agree with you entirely!

And that's the point.

Every man/woman in a toyota in nairobi wants to one day drive a mercedes.

But when the car breaks down, he doesn't head to Toyota, he heads to grogan. Sure he'd prefer to go to dt dobie but the facts in his pocket don't lie. He understands that before he can go get the mercedes, there some things he needs to do first in order to have his mercedes run well. He wouldn't want to have an empty pocket as his merc stalls on Uhuru highway.

These are the facts as I know them from personal experience.

I offer a service online that only 3 other companies in the world offer. Out of the 4 of us, we happen to be the most expensive. 2 of them are in India and another in the Phillipines.

So we got to talking with the fellows as I was wondering how they could manage to offer such low rates and I was losing business.

It all boiled down to one thing. In one hour I am able to do 2 jobs. In an hour they are able to do 10 jobs. So their revenue per man hour is higher.

The reason I was doing less work is because of

1. Slow internet speeds. (pls don't even think 3G is anywhere to fast and reliable with what we do)
2. KPLC
3. Lack of trained employees

They have all those things covered.

So just in case you are thinking that is the end of the story. In order to compete, we've had to hire remote computers( in india and the US) to avoid the power outages and the unreliable internet in Kenya.

This is 2012. You are telling me that I should now wait for 10yrs so that Konza can be built so that Kenyans can compete with the rest of the world?

The world won't wait for Kenya

That is where I believe this whole idea has gone wrong.

I believe that it is possible to have in Kenya this year, fast internet in all homes. That is unless the 3 fibre lines laid were not what was advertised.

We do not have 10 yrs to build houses. We either compete now or we are doomed.

The ministry should be encouraging companies such as zuku, Jtl to lay fibre everywhere. They should get out of their nairobi offices, go to kisumu and explain to the farmer how hii internet ni mzuri sana. You can even see naked women for free.

Slow down on the international conferences they are always going to and sponsor 5 students a year to IT colleges out there coz our current breed of lecturers can't teach IT to their own children

That 600 million spent on land would have gone further if offered to schools so that our kids don't have to go to a college after form 4 to learn excel and word. those with businesses here will attest to the fact that even university graduates have no idea how to work with a word document. Tell them to use excell and you have to call a press conference.

I'm sorry. In ten years time, there may not even be a computer in anyone's home. That is how fast ICT grows.

But an educated populace will be able to deal with the challenges. Right now, all anyone can tell me is that the ICT board supports Ihub.

Some no more than 500 Kenyans. How are 500 Kenyans going to stay ahead when where I was living in Cambridge, every shopkeeper was IT savvy? My neighbour's kids were being hired by gaming companies to come up with computer programs.

Let's get serious here.Let's build the infrastructure and resources first then build the so called cities. Trust me, your next Konza may be somewhere in Mt. Elgon....All they need is the support from gov't not houses. That is why they have county gov'ts to come up with their own cities.