http://www.a4architect.c...nza-ict-park-land-deal/
]The Ministry of Information, entered into an agreement with the directors of Malili Ranch on June 17 last year to purchase 5,000 acres of land at a price of Sh200,000 per acre and made a down-payment of Sh400 million. The Sh600 million balance was paid in January paving the way for work to begin. Malili Ranch belonged to 606 farmers who owned 7.8 acres each and were paid Sh1.56 million each for their shares. The government has zoned part of the 5,000 acres for planned activities such as IT, hospitality, education, health and finance -]

The 400m tax payers money could have all been utilised to lay IT related infrastructure. No need to purchase the land since Govt. can make bye laws stipulating land usage to be IT based.

@jamplu. true. Nairobi has already overgrown itself. The next posible location for nirobi city extension is along mombasa road. whether or not govt. intervenes in the konza city situation, the area will still grow into a city due to proximity ot cbd and mombasa road access. Als, land is cheap and available as oposed to thika road, nairobi-nakuru highway.
IT talent will also grow whether or not there is Konza city. The mobile app developers will still innovate.
Konza city marketing is very similar to Tatu and many other real estate developments. The end result is a large profit to the owner of the 500 acre land i.e Govt.after re selling the land to 3rd parties.

Even better why would one set up shop in Konza and not KU ( KU is making its own city and looking at its plan it looks promising)

Konza city shld be a long term plan,the govt shld concentrate with the current challenges like getting the last mile connectivity which I think is becoming a challenge.

ICTboard is trying to fund start ups and encourage content development but can we really say our current capacity can actually occupy a city live alone a town...

I think what KU has done is commendable...They have students who in most cases are creative and form the largest users of technology.. JKUAT is just a few KMs from there...
The university has collaborations with cisco and kenyas telecoms...This I think is the way to go.

What the Govt needs to do is put in place an enabling environment for the growth of the ICT sector.

for instance,high Electricity charges,high fuel costs and unstable currency makes this country uncompetitive.The gap btwn the common mwananchi and engineers is wanting like someone said we have the skills but it is useless given that we still use outdated technology in most sectors of the economy.

Another thing like an MP said the other day about wasting funds to invest in nuclear energy when we have untapped potential in geothermal which is cheaper to produce.

We have capacities to produce agricultural products that can compete in international market..why are we concentrating in costly projects that does not guarantee an immediate cashflow and neglect sectors of the economy that have a guarantee.Look at Eastleigh, Muthurwa market,juakali artisans on luthuli,huruma,Umoja and other towns these pple need well designed markets to boost our retail and industrial sector But the govt has neglected this big portion of the economy for KONZA CITY.

This Konza city is another of those money making schemes by ill advised civil servants. I can wager my next year annual salary that this thing will never take place and in future I expect it to be the subject of the PAC meetings. 3D renderings repeatedly advertised on the TV don't make things a reality.

Government's work is to provide policy and basic infrastructure to locations and letting things thrive. Anyone familiar with with Canary Wharf in London or Dubai's Internet city, media city and financial center can obviously see this Konza thing is a scheme.

If government was serious it would start by providing basic infrastructure around Upper hill and putting together policy. The place is an already built up financial district without policy of ideal infrastructure. Industrial area is another one falling short on policy and infrastructure, ditto Mombasa road and Athi river junction with it's now 5 cement companies in place. These just require policy and basic supporting infrastructure and some of these fancy themes can become reality. So if the same people can't see these obvious ones why do we believe they will turn a bush into a technology city.

Not quite. Same way they build airports to attract carriers, ports, etc. Think of the first submarine cable and then it starts to make sense...

there has to be an incentive for such investments and if the govt does not take the first step, who will? And under what framework?