Please wake up to the reality that some people will always argue in support of Konza,no need thus to waste time and bandwidth debating merits and demerits of Konza. The people I expect will always go to any lengths to defend Konza are:
• People who have bought land near Konza for speculation purposes
• People who think they have an opportunity to reap big from construction / planning contracts.
Note that those countries that have developed similar cities (India, S. Africa, US, etc.) were not in our league when they developed their plans. None of them exports unprocessed raw materials for instance. All of them have reasonably well developed infrastructure – road, rail, energy. You cannot ‘copy’ a city in India and ‘paste’ in Ukambani. We need to sort out the basics first.

@limanika, Good point. The same people opposing the laptop for school children as a waste of money are the same supporting Konza. The acts and deeds are worlds apart. The machakos City will soon overshadow Konza as they are rivaling for resources and the county may have more mileage over the National Govt in that case.

@Gathige..very true. Any reasonable investor will choose Machakos or Kajiado over Konza any time.

If he is not restrained by finances, he will choose areas near CBD such as Karen, Gigiri, Upper Hill, Muthaiga, or along Thika road.
As it is, Konza subscribers are at 80% local. Am sure these local must be entities related to Ministry of ICT mainly to tag along and make Konza look like it has subscribers but in reality, will not invest a dime there.

Its interesting you support the laptop project but who is likely to employ these lads and ladies upon graduation? ... Are we setting ourselves up for brain drain later?

To some what I'm about to say may seem contrary to what I write on wazua. but it isn't

Those saying that laptops for 6 year olds are going to help this country in 14 years are totally lost and don't understand how online business and IT works.

It is not about IT its about time. Everyone can calculate how many cows they have and how much profit they expect to make 10 years from now considering costs and profit margins.

However, one person will use sticks drawn on the ground and another will use excell.

One person is coming up with decisions faster. It's not that one is sharper than the other.

Our children will not become computer gurus because they have a laptop when they are 6 years. They will become computer gurus because they got a good education. I know of very stupid jungus and their having laptops when young could not hide the fact that they didn't understand the elements of algebra.

The gov't is behaving like the guy who knows that it is important to have sharp kids so his solution is to sleep with every girl in the village instead of teaching 2 children to be very sharp.

I am sorry. Just because you have a laptop does not mean you can make a computer program.

The situation is made worse by the fact the person supposed to learn how to use the laptop is going to be taught by a person who has never seen a laptop.

If the plan is to solve the education system. The solution is not buying hardware but investing in the education system.

This situation is made worse by the fact that technology doesn't wait for you to have 16 meetings and 10 years to become sharp.

Case study is ghafla.com

Whether Kenyans know it or not, this is a success story that all our kids in school should be taught over and over again.

Ok I know. In one post I say they suck and in this I say they are great.

The guys of ghafla did not wait for tech to come to them they went out and did it. As the gov't was busy building konza dreams and laptop fantasies, these guys have gone ahead and captured the attention of every hormone driven teen in the country.

I guess we should have told them to wait first to get a 10gb serve with 20TB upspeeds before they started.

Laptops are putting the solution to the education system in hardware rather than concentrating on having people why 1 to the power of 3 plus 1 to the power of 2 is not the same as 1 + 1.

Laptops will never solve that. Good teachers will.

Just the same way as big buildings will never make us tech savvy but people will.

Whilst Kenya was building houses in Konza, Ghafla was building a tech and media empire. You tell me how that divide will look like 12 years from now when laptop kis are going to college and Konza is renting its first shop space.

Time is what IT buys. We are busy buying laptops and houses.